Explore The View: Inside Lake Charles’ Former Capitol One Tower Club

Back in September of this year, the big news around Southwest Louisiana was that the Capital One Tower was going to be torn down. The iconic tower that stood in downtown Lake Charles since the early 1980s was about to be no more.

If you are not familiar with the tower, it was devastated in 2020 when then category 4 and some say 5 hurricane Laura hit the Lake Charles area head-on. Six weeks later, hurricane Delta came through and essentially finished the job causing millions of dollars in damage to the iconic tower.

Once the pride of the skyline of downtown Lake Charles, it was no more than a beaten down and battered building after the storms. It sat abandoned for a little over four years sporting wooden windows where once sat beautiful green stained colored glass.

The tower was imploded on Saturday, September 7, 2024, forever changing the skyline of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Since it was closed and abandoned for over four years, a lot of people may have forgotten some of the cool things that were located inside the building.

One I can remember was the massive two-story atrium which housed the bank and escalators. You may have also forgotten about the club called The View which was housed on one of the top floors of the 23-story building.

It was a popular spot for people to go and was also a popular place where people loved to have their wedding receptions. I can remember DJing a couple up there myself. We found a video of what the inside of the old abandoned club looked like. Check this out. It may bring back some memories.

How crazy was that?