The Button Hole near Downey’s Stonewood Center mall offers a glimpse of city’s history

In one way, it is simply a hole in a wall, an opening a couple of feet wide between the sidewalk on Cecilia Street and the parking lot of Stonewood Center mall in Downey.

Since the mall was built in 1958, that thoroughfare was there, and residents remember getting dropped off as teenagers, darting between the red gum evergreen trees to get ice cream at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour or catch a movie at the twin theaters.

On Wednesday, Aug. 30, the Downey Conservancy gathered people to talk about how The Button Hole came to be, and of the two men whose lives inspired the celebration.

This is what we know, said Kathy Lopez, president of the nonprofit that works to preserve Downey’s historic and cultural resources.

“Wallace C. Button lived in the neighborhood north of the property, on Clancey Avenue,” she said. “It was his habit for many years to walk through the property as part of his daily exercise. When the wall was built around the mall, the break in the wall was left so that Mr. Button’s walking path was allowed to continue.”

When Button died in 1969, his fellow Rotary Club members, friends and neighbors, put up a brass plaque on the cinder block wall officially designating the spot as “The Button Hole.”

One of those Rotarians was Harold Tseklenis. His widow Anna and son David were on hand Wednesday to rededicate a new plaque at The Button Hole. Someone had stolen the original sometime in 2016, and Tseklenis worked to replace it. He died in 2019 before he could accomplish it, so the preservation group took up his cause.

The new plaque honors both men for their lives of community service and for simply being gentlemen, Lopez said. She said Tseklenis was a well-traveled engineer who co-founded the Downey Conservancy in 2010.

“Harold was a man of grace and culture, intelligent and good and kind,” Lopez said. “He was a member of the Downey Symphony and on the board of the Downey Museum of Art.”

David Tseklenis said his father cared about the Downey community.

“He really appreciated the rich history here, everyone coming together for a common cause, in this case a little obscure piece of Downey history,” he said. “This is good fun.”

The ceremony, attended by local leaders as well as representatives of Stonewood Center, highlights Downey pride in its history, from its ties to the Apollo 11 mission to being the home of the first Taco Bell and the birthplace of singers Richard and Karen Carpenter.

“Stonewood Center has been a part of the Downey community for 65 years and keeping the little ‘bits’ of history alive is essential,” said Deena Henry, director of property management. “We were happy to see the area being rededicated and look forward to seeing the Downey community using this fun piece of the Stonewood Center history to walk to the center.”

Lopez said she’d love to share The Button Hole’s story with younger people, “to instill a sense of pride for what makes Downey special and unique, so we can pass (these two men’s) legacy to them, inspire them to give back and take care of it. We truly have a hole in the wall, and it’s one of those small town, warm-your-heart, pieces of the city that makes it home.”

SCNG photographer Keith Birmingham contributed to this story.

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