The response of a plate-column system having five-degree-of-freedom supported by an elastic foundation and subjected to static lateral load, harmonic ground motion and earthquake motion is studied. Two Winkler foundation models are assumed: a conventional model which supports compression and tension and a tensionless model which supports compression only. The governing equations of the problem are obtained, solved numerically and the results are presented in figures to demonstrate the behavior of the system for various values of the system parameters comparatively for the conventional and the tensionless Winkler foundation models.