The title compound, C(20)H(19)NO, is a substructure of CP-640186, a potent inhibitor of mammalian acetyl-coenzyme A carboxyl-ases. In the crystal structure, the amide group forms a dihedral angle of 87.0 (1)° with the plane of the anthracene unit and the piperidine ring adopts a chair conformation. Mol-ecules are arranged into layers parallel to (100) and adjacent anthracene units within layers form dihedral angles of 13.2 (1)°. C-H⋯O inter-actions from the piperidine rings to the C=O group of the amide are observed between layers.