The Philadelphia Historical Commission voted in favor of removing the Christopher Columbus Statue from Marconi Plaza on Friday. Though the statue has sat in Marconi Plaza for more than a century, the controversy surrounding it reached a peak this year. On Friday, the Philadelphia Historical Commission voted 10-2 to have the 144-year-old statue removed.

“We do not tear down monuments of people of the past no more than we burn books,” a Philadelphia resident who opposes removing the statue said.