council-elected Mayor of San Jose in 1859, and served a single one-year term. According to one account, in 1876 (after 26 years of marriage) Carmel found Thomas and the family maid in a compromising position, and filed for divorce. Carmel used the divorce settlement to build several hotels and other buildings, including the Carmel Fallon Building (1894) at 1800 Market Street in San Francisco, now part of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Thomas Fallon died in San Francisco in 1885. Legacy In the 1980s, San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery had the city commission a statue of Fallon raising the U.S. flag in San Jose at a cost of over $800,000. The statue was completed in 1988, and was scheduled to be located in the City Park Plaza (now known as Plaza de César Chávez) near the site of the flag raising. However local groups, including Hispanic Americans, protested that Fallon represented American imperialism and repression of the Mexican population. The statue was stored until 2002, when it was finally displayed in Pellier Park northwest of the original proposed location, near Julian and St. James Streets. In 2020, such criticisms were revived in the aftermath to the murder of George Floyd and more specifically to the grand jury's decision over the shooting of Breonna Taylor. On the day of the grand jury's decision and following evening, peaceful protests occurred in San Jose around the same area where the statue is located. However, some protesters surrounded the statue, vandalized it including with anti-police messages, and then set it on fire. San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo is already talking with historians and community leaders and residents on what to do with the statue. References External links Peralta Adobe and Fallon House Historic Site in San Jose Carmel Fallon Building in San Francisco 1825 births 1885 deaths Mayors of San Jose, California Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) People of the California Gold Rush 19th-century American politicians