Abstract: In residential steel building structures, the identical depth design among joints and, the boundary element of steel plate shear wall and I-beam can lead to a required interior space, but it makes the joint design more difficult. A combination type of the joint connecting the boundary element with the I-beam was proposed, with an external-diaphragm connection on the upper flange and with a flitch plate connection on the lower flange of I-beam. The hysteretic tests of two specimens with different axial compression ratios were carried out to study their load-bearing performance, failure mode, hysteretic performance, skeleton curve and, strength and stiffness degradation. The test results indicated that: The average yield displacement angle of 1/136 and limit displacement angle of 1/42 both could meet the specified requirements in Chinese Code for the seismic design of buildings GB 50011−2010; The deformability of the flitch plate connection on the lower flange is weaker than that of the external-diaphragm connection on the upper flange; The cracking is prone to occur in the weld seam of the flitch plate connection, resulting in the strength and stiffness degrade rapidly. A refined finite element model including all details of connecting joints was established and the tests are simulated numerically. A good agreement between the test and finite element results was reached, and the investigation of the validated finite element model could provide fundamentals for establishing the design methods of the flitch plate connection.