Named after English painter Thomas Gainsborough, the building is one of several in Manhattan that were built in the early 20th century as both studios and residences for artists.

The Gainsborough Studios corporation built the structure between 1907 and 1908 as artists' cooperative housing, although it gradually became a standard residential development.

[8] The artist August Franzen [sv] was the founding president of the Gainsborough Studios corporation, which developed the building.

[3] The entrance is set within a square doorway under a portico with the words gainsborough studios, which in turn is supported by a pair of white terracotta and granite Ionic columns.

[5] The frieze depicts various people delivering gifts to an altar representing the arts, and contains two small windows.

[13] A plinth sits atop the entrance portico, supporting a bust of Thomas Gainsborough outside the fourth and fifth stories.

[11] The lower portion of each double-story section features a quatrefoil panel and a small pediment at the center, flanked by a glass pane on each side.

The building has a shared kitchen, laundry, and dining room, although individual units contain reception areas for clients.

[14] The Gainsborough Studios was legally classified as a hotel to circumvent zoning restrictions that prevented new apartment buildings from being taller than 150 percent of the width of the adjacent street.

Accordingly, the units on the building's northern side were equipped with 18-foot (5.5 m) ceilings and double-height windows, and thus contained the duplex suites.

[20] In 1907, businessman Barron Collier and artists Colin Campbell Cooper, Elliott Daingerfield, and August Franzen formed the Gainsborough Studios corporation, headquartered at 307 Fifth Avenue.

[22] Buckham was hired as architect,[23] and that May, he filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings for an eight-story fireproof artists' studio on the site, to cost $300,000.

The colored ceramic tiles were reproduced by hand, the terracotta was partially replaced, and the frieze was recast in concrete.

[11][14] In 1977, architectural writer Paul Goldberger wrote for The New York Times that the facade of the Gainsborough Studios was "far more interesting than anything on 67th Street", praising the Ionic columns at the base and the mosaics at the top.