It is in Manhattan's Tribeca and Civic Center neighborhoods at the northwest corner of Broadway and Murray Street, adjacent to City Hall Park.

The original 16-story Home Life Insurance Company Building at 256 Broadway was designed by Napoleon LeBrun & Sons in the Renaissance Revival style.

The 13-story Postal Telegraph Building, immediately to the south at 253 Broadway, was designed by George Edward Harding & Gooch in the neoclassical style.

[26] The facade emphasizes its vertical components, with three-part arcades stacked on each other, as well as ornamental details concentrated at the base and top.

[19][27] 256 Broadway's facade is divided into three vertical sections: a three-story base, a nine-story shaft with two transitional stories, and a two-story capital with a steep pyramidal roof.

[11][33][37] 253 Broadway's floors are built upon steel beams infilled with flat terracotta arches and covered with cement.

[15][30][38] 253 Broadway's structural beams were laid out so that the floors could carry a total live and dead load of 175 pounds per square foot (850 kg/m2).

[24] 256 Broadway's structural beams were laid out so that the floors could carry a total live and dead load of 175 pounds per square foot (850 kg/m2).

[27] The southern half of 253 Broadway's ground floor is a 100-by-25-foot (30.5 by 7.6 m) room,[15] which housed Postal Telegraph's shipping, messenger, delivery, and warehouse operations.

[20] When opened, 256 Broadway was also outfitted with its own electric plant and three hydraulic elevators, located in the two basement levels of the building.

Home Life acquired the five-story building at 254 Broadway three years afterward, where it occupied the ground story and leased the remaining space.

The two companies applied for their building permits three months apart: Postal Telegraph in May 1892 and Home Life in August 1892.

[12] Harding and Gooch were selected as architects for the Postal Telegraph Building,[17][18] apparently through an architectural design competition.

[54] Additionally, the Postal Life Building's project superintendent was seriously injured in October 1893 when he was shot by a homeless man looking for work.

[55] Home Life held a design competition for its planned headquarters, with six architecture firms competing.

[17][58] At the time, life insurance companies generally had their own buildings for their offices and branch locations.

According to architectural writer Kenneth Gibbs, these buildings allowed each individual company to instill "not only its name but also a favorable impression of its operations" in the general public.

[60][62] Furthermore, life insurance companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries generally built massive buildings to fit their large clerical and records-keeping staff.

[81] Next door, Postal Telegraph continued to be the main occupant at 253 Broadway until 1928, when it moved to the International Telephone Building at 67 Broad Street.

[84] Postal Telegraph moved back to 253 Broadway in 1939, signing a long-term lease for six floors in the building.

[86] During this time, the ground floor space was occupied by Wallach's Inc.[87] and the basement housed a branch of the Longchamps restaurant chain.

[45] Home Life acquired 253 Broadway in November 1946, paying Trinity Church $1.7 million in cash.

[28] Openings were created in the party wall between 253 and 256 Broadway, and staircases were built to connect the corridors in the two formerly-separate buildings.

A subsequent renovation was undertaken by Ira Greenburg in 1984, and the following October, 253 Broadway Associates bought the combined building.

[1] The LPC started renovating six floors in the Home Life Building in 2016, intending to move its offices there the next year.

[94] The city government announced in 2017 that it would renovate the Home Life Building with an estimated budget of $18.5 million.

[95] When the buildings were completed in 1894, a writer for the Real Estate Record and Guide stated that they "war violently with one another, and the pity is, the strife is one [that] time can not mitigate".

Architectural writers Sarah Landau and Carl W. Condit stated in 1996 that "it is hard to understand what seemed in 1894 so egregious", with the "only jarring discordance" being the glass blocks on 253 Broadway.

"[6] The Real Estate Record writer from 1894 said that "the obstreperousness of commerce fairly protrudes" from 253 Broadway, and that "its defects are gross".

[6] One critical review came from the Real Estate Record, which in 1894 wrote that 256 Broadway gave a "festal" impression "that contradicts the grim commercialism of the actuary".