The building became a meeting place for locals, and hosted the first club to use the term "Oak Brook" to refer to the surrounding settlement.

Frank Osgood Butler was the son of a wealthy businessman who bought a farm as a summer home in between the burgeoning suburbs of Elmhurst and Hinsdale in 1898.

[1] It was Butler who donated a small 10 acres (4.0 ha) tract of land to the city and funded the construction of a new school.

The region was home to two one-story schools at the time, and Butler wanted to create an educational environment that was notable at the state level.

Butler's large holdings in the area stunted local development, and attendance was unable to significantly increase over the forty-year period.

A civic organization that met in the school was the first to use the term "Oak Brook" to refer to the surrounding community.

In addition, Marshall Field purchased a local tract of land to develop into the Oakbrook Center shopping mall.