The Century Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1986,[2] and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

After the American Civil War, Union Square became a primarily commercial area and many mansions were destroyed, including Everett House.

[6] The Arnold family held onto the property for over a decade, with the intention of earning rental income from the as-yet-undeveloped site; in 1879, the family's architect J. William Schickel was commissioned to create plans for a "speculative commercial building" at the site, without an anchor tenant for the building.

[6] At the time, real estate market activity had recovered from the Panic of 1873, though properties were still relatively inexpensive and the population was growing.

[2][3] They started renting fifth-floor space for their headquarters in September 1881, having been drawn by the proximity to a park, as well as the building's location within what was then Manhattan's commercial center.

Arnold & Constable also rented space to several long-term tenants, including upholsterers Johnson & Faulkner and architect George B.

[13] The bookbinders G. W. Alexander moved to the top floor in 1886, prompting several other tenants to complain that the firm's flammable materials posed a fire hazard, but with no reaction from the owners.

[17] One story concerned a runaway child from Indiana who ran away in 1895 "to seek [her] fortune", only to be found with a paper containing the address "33 East Seventeenth Street New-York".

By the 1920s, Union Square was becoming a neighborhood dedicated primarily to manufacturing and wholesaling, and the Century Building's remaining tenants included Johnson & Faulkner as well as Earl & Wilson.

Later tenants who occupied the building by the 1930s included William Shaland Toys and Novelties, as well as the Ferguson Brothers Manufacturing Company.

[24] The facade was restored in 1994–1995 by Li/Saltzman Architects,[3] while Related Companies renovated the rest of the building to accommodate a four-story Barnes & Noble bookstore.

[2] First used in the United States in the 1860s, the Queen Anne style included such features as asymmetric brick facades, stone decorative trim, elaborate ornamentation, and roofs interrupted by dormers or gables.

[13] The structure contains a footprint in an L shape and extends north through the entire width of the block, with a secondary address at 38-46 East 18th Street.

Elements of the 17th Street facade that are inspired by other buildings include an oriel window on the second story, an off-center entrance at ground level, decorated brick pilasters, ornate ironwork, and stone reliefs featuring motifs from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Schickel also included some Neo-Grec architectural elements such as the largely uninterrupted facade, the decorated iron pilasters on the ground level, and the "gridlike" style formed by the vertical piers and the horizontal divisions between floors.

[30] The 17th Street facade contains three architectural bays and three layers of articulation: the single-story ground-level retail, the four stories of office floors above, and the 1+1⁄2 attic section with dormers protruding from the steeply pitched roof.

[29] At ground level, the main entrance is located on the left (west) side of the facade, which leads to stairs to the upper floors.

A cornice, supported by stone bases that are attached to the vertical piers, runs along the facade between the fifth and sixth floors.