12/05/2025
OUR HOME: 556 JEFFERSON STREET
Jefferson Towers—located at 556 Jefferson Street (on the NW corner of Jefferson Street and Vermilion Street) in downtown Lafayette—is where we go to work every day. It’s one of the most instantly recognizable buildings in the Hub City. However, it wasn’t always that way.
The Cottage Hotel operated at this location in the late 1890’s through the turn of the century. In 1911, the property was sold to the federal government to accommodate plans to build a new post office here after outgrowing the old one located at 423 Jefferson Street (Central Pizza operates out of that still standing building today). The post office operated here from 1915 until 1960 during which time Lafayette’s population grew from 7,000 residents to 40,000. In 1960, the post office moved to the new federal courthouse located on the corner of Jefferson/Main Street which had been completed in 1958 (today, it is the Lofts at the Municipal apartments). The vacant post office building here was demolished in 1960 to make way for a new trend happening all across America: parking towers. The 13-story Quik Park parking tower was built here in 1960. It featured two automated car elevators. Drivers would leave their vehicles on the first floor for parking attendants to park them on the floors above. There was only one problem: the Quik Park wasn’t quick at all. Locals recall often having to wait for 45 minutes or more to retrieve their cars during peak hours. Making matters worse, one of the car elevators was always broken. Drivers quickly decided that parking elsewhere at street level was a better use of their time. To no one’s surprise, the parking tower closed after a year. It sat abandoned for next two decades (1961-1981). In 1981, the tower was sold at sheriff’s sale to a partnership formed by architect Pierce Meleton and his partners along with attorneys Bob Wright, James Domengeaux, Jim Roy and their partners in the law firm of Domengeaux & Wright. The group originally intended on converting the tower into a luxury hotel but quickly settled on converting it into an office building. The riskiest part of the build was knocking out every other steel reinforced concrete floor of the old 13-story tower. What was once a 13-story parking tower was ultimately transformed into an 8-story office building (the development group added an 8th floor on the roof of the tower if you are counting). Removing every other floor was necessary because each of the original 13 floors were too close to each other to safely accommodate electrical, HVAC, and functional office space. Weill Construction Company was the general contractor and did a great job. Interestingly, it is one of the few buildings in Lafayette with a basement and was one of the first in town to feature an auxiliary diesel powered generator. The project that began in1981 was completed in 1983 and Jefferson Towers was born. Our law firm moved in on September 12,1983 and has operated here continuously since that time. In 1984, artist Robert Dafford was hired to paint a mural on the north side of the building. His iconic 114-foot tall mural depicting several antique cars is aptly named “Ex Garage,” a hat tip to the rich and curious history of the building we call home.
