Oak Brook was originally known as Fullersburg, named after Ben Fuller, an early settler. Oak Brook was incorporated as a village in 1958, due in large part to the efforts of
Paul Butler, a prominent civic leader and landowner whose father had first moved to the vicinity in 1898 and opened a dairy farm shortly thereafter. Prior to incorporation, the name Oak Brook was used by local residents to distinguish their community from neighboring
Hinsdale and
Elmhurst, going back to the founding of the Oak Brook Civic Association almost two decades earlier. The original boundaries were smaller than the present extent of the village, but a considerable amount of land was annexed soon after the founding of the village, including the land that is now the site of the
Oakbrook Center shopping mall, which opened in 1962. In 1964 Butler entered a joint venture with the
Del E. Webb Corporation of Phoenix, Arizona, to increase development of the area. Webb's construction company constructed dozens of buildings in Oak Brook both commercial and residential. The Webb Corporation's involvement in the development of the village lasted into the late 1970s. Paul Butler's interest in sport was reflected in the Oak Brook Sports Core, which features
polo fields, a
golf course (which was at one time the venue for the
Western Open), swimming and tennis facilities, and other recreational facilities not commonly found in a village of this size. ==Geography==