Housing eight families, or two per floor over ground-floor shops, this pre-law tenement was built in 1862-1863 by William B. Astor as a speculative development. This building and its immediate neighbors to the west were identical, and were built in conjunction with Nos. 528 and 530 further west down the block, even though they varied in design from those two buildings.
This building retains most of its original details, including many of the original window lintels, the unpainted brick facade and the cornice. The small windows were likely inserted into the facade around 1905. The ground-floor shops were converted into apartments at some point in time.