A tour of lower Broadway’s rich and historic pageant of architectural splendor could easily miss the building at number 311.

Across the street from two soaring federal office towers and nestled between a pair of much more elaborately-trimmed apartment buildings, the stately five-story former textile warehouse and showroom at 311 Broadway doesn’t impress much among its larger and more ornate neighbors. But what the 153-year-old building lacks in embellished decoration, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission says it makes up in historical significance.

At a hearing Jan. 12, the Commission voted unanimously to tag the building as an individual landmark, calling it a “rare reminder of Broadway’s mercantile heyday and a significant artifact from the commercial development of the city.”

“This is certainly an understated building, but it’s an important survivor on Broadway,” Landmarks Commissioner Stephen Byrns said. Built in 1857 and clad entirely in stone, 311 Broadway is described in the Commission’s designation report as “a fine example of Italian Renaissance-inspired commercial palaces” that were common in Lower Manhattan from the 1850s through the 1870s. It began its life as a dry goods warehouse, just as Broadway was emerging as the city’s main corridor for shopping and wholesalers. Fifteen years after its construction, a prominent scale manufacturer, Fairbanks & Co., moved into the building and used it as both a storage facility and showroom.

“I’m so surprised that it’s as intact as it is,” commissioner Joan Gerner said. “That’s one of the reasons we should grab it now and designate it.”

The building was sold to the Astor family in 1887, and stayed in the family for 61 years, according to the Commission’s report. That period of time saw several notable tenants set up shop in the building, including the L.C. Smith & Brothers Typewriter Company, stationery seller Eugene H. Towers, Inc. and the David T. Abercrombie Company, a predecessor to the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing stores. In 1948, the Hagstrom Company, Inc., a well-known map-making, art and photography company, bought the building from the Astors.

After Hagstrom sold the building in 1969, the building had as many as half a dozen different owners. Tenants from 1969 to 1999, when the upper floors were converted into residential apartments, included the New York City Department of Health and Lincoln Card and Gift store.

Midway on the block between Thomas and Duane Streets, the building lies just outside the reaches of Tribeca’s South and East Historic Districts. It, along with its immediate neighbors at 305 and 315 Broadway, were omitted from districts in 1992. Several commissioners questioned during the Jan. 12 hearing why the other two buildings were not considered landmarks. Robert Teirney, the commission’s chairman, said the city was interested in landmarking both adjacent buildings, but would have to do them individually because there were not enough historic buildings in the surrounding area to justify creating a new historic district.

“We’re going one at a time,” Teirney said. “The other [buildings] two are under our supervision. I think we’ll be seeing more of these two.”

Today, 311 Broadway is home a few residents on the upper four floors, and to an Atomic Wings restaurant and discount store on the ground and basement floors. At street level, the building’s stone façade has been covered over with flat metal and granite panels. It’s a look commissioners said was woefully out of context with the rest of the building, though regrettably was fairly consistent with other ground-level businesses up and down Broadway.

“I hope we can make some progress restoring that back to something that is more appropriate to the rest of the building,” commissioner Elizabeth Ryan said.