Wealthy painter and philanthropist Ellen Dunlap Hopkins founded the New York School of Applied Design for Women in 1892. Its mission was to "afford [...] women inspiration which may enable them to earn a livelihood by the employment of their taste and manual dexterity in the application of ornamental design to manufacture and the arts." This meant illustration, book cover design, interior design, wallpaper, and textile design and architecture. The school also helped the students and graduate sell their pieces.

The school moved into a brand new building in 1909. Designed by Harvey Wiley Corbett, the five-story neo-Classical building was funded largely by J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller. Despite its classical temple look and Greek details, a contemporary architecture journal derided it as "drastically modern." The New York Times' Christopher Gray was kinder if more expressive when he noted in a 2008 article that "the steeply sloping roof provides a pungent termination."

Following a brief partnership with Columbia University between 1910 and 1912, the school continued as originally organized until 1944. A merger with the Phoenix Art Institute turned the school into a co-educational facility. A further merger in 1974 with Pratt. The now-named Pratt-New York Phoenix School of Design operated until the 1980s.

Today the building, whose facade has not been seriously altered since its construction, is home to a high-end fashion showroom.