Abstract: The three-story specimen with 1/4 scale of a prototype structure was tested under horizontal low cyclic loading. The prototype structure is steel frame-thin steel plate shear walls designed by the shear bearing capacity of a plate and buckles in shear before yielding. The lateral stiffness, energy dissipation, percentage distribution of a horizontal shear force and an overturning moment between the steel frame and shear walls, the out-of-plane displacement at the center of infill panel and the angle of principal tensile stress occurred at shear wall were obtained from the multi-story thin steel plate shear wall structure subjected to a horizontal load. The results show that the horizontal lateral stiffness of the structure gradually decreases with increase of loading level, but the reduced degree is smaller and smaller. The energy dissipation of a specimen is very strong and the 6.7 times yield energy is dissipated at the final loading cycle stage. The dissipated energy at each storey of a specimen gradually increases with the increase of horizontal loading displacement and the dissipative energy is largest at the second storey, larger at the top and minimum at the bottom. When the structure remains an elastic state at the first loading level, the percentage of a horizontal load borne by a shear panel is about 60%~65% and the rest is borne by a steel frame. Whereas, the percentage of overturning moment borne by a steel frame is about 80% and the rest is borne by a shear panel. The angle of principal tensile stress occurred at shear wall is from 30° to 51°.