The Ho Chi Minh City Hall is in the French colonial style and its construction by the French colonialists was completed in 1908  when the city was still known as Saigon. When the city in April 1975 fell to the Viet Cong, it became the head office of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee (fig.). A statue of Ho Chi Minh (fig.), locally referred to as Uncle Ho, is erected in a garden in front of the former city hall.