Designed by Ernest Flagg in the Beaux Arts style, it was completed in 1893 as the corporate headquarters of Charles Scribner's Sons publishing company.

The company used the Old Scribner Building until 1913, when the firm moved to 597 Fifth Avenue, a structure also designed by Flagg.

[3][4] The surrounding stretch of Fifth Avenue was developed with residences in the 1840s, which were demolished to make way for commercial and office uses by the late 19th century.

[5] Just prior to the Old Scribner Building's construction, the lots at 153–155 Fifth Avenue may have been occupied by the Glenham Hotel.

[12] According to Scribner's Magazine, the building was "the first in America built from ground to top distinctly for the uses of a publishing house".

[15][16] The facade is horizontally separated into three sections—the ground-story base, the second through fifth stories, and the sixth-story roof—each subdivided into five vertical bays.

[16] Above the center of the first floor is a cartouche with the capital letters "Charles Scribner's Sons", above a garland flanked by putti.

The inner bays are slightly recessed behind the pilasters, with carved iron spandrels separating the windows between either story.

[16] A cornice with closely spaced console brackets runs above the fifth story, topped by a parapet and a slate mansard roof.

[20][21] At the sixth story, the outermost bays have curved broken pediments containing cartouches, below which are inscriptions with dates in Roman numerals.

[22][14] Upon the building's completion, the bookstore was described in Scribner's Magazine as resembling a "particularly well-cared-for library in some great private house, or in some of the quieter public institutions".

[14] The wooden floor was laid on asphalt blocks and the ceiling was supported by high columns with Corinthian-style capitals.

The sixth story included mail rooms, circular-printing equipment, as well as what Scribner's Magazine called "the other miscellany of a great business".

[2][29] In subsequent years, the company published works such as Scribner's Magazine, Baedeker Guides, the Dictionary of American Biography.

[30] In October 1893, Charles Scribner's Sons were reported as the buyers of the Glenham Hotel at 153 and 155 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District.

[34][35] Over 300,000 books, manuscripts, letters, and accounts were moved within one month; according to The New York Times, "not one was even imperceptibly damaged".

[36] Upon the building's completion, a New York Times reporter described the bookstore as having a wide collection of items, including rare volumes and documents.

For instance, in November 1894, the building had a bookbinding exhibition "under the gracefully-shaped architectural marquise of which it is delightful to pass in", as it was described by The New York Times.

[44] By January 1911, Ernest Flagg had written in his diary that Charles Scribner II had discussed the possibility of constructing a new quarters along Fifth Avenue.

[48] Following their relocation, Charles Scribner's Sons continued to hold the old building, leasing it in October 1913 to glass importers D. Bloch & Company.

[49] D. Bloch moved to the building soon afterward, in what local media described as one of several signs of the surrounding neighborhood's mercantile redevelopment.

[20] Brown, Wheelock, Harris & Co. were named as the leasing agents for 153 Fifth Avenue's office space the same year.

[55] Some space was taken by Alliance Distributors,[56] which renovated its offices on the third and fourth floors in 1937 to plans by F. P. Platt & Brother.

[66] During the 2010s, tenants of the Old Scribner Building included a showroom and office for clothing designer Rachel Zoe,[67] a store for The White Company,[68][69] and coworking space Knotel.