[3] A suburb of Chicago, it contains the headquarters of Ace Hardware, Portillo's Restaurants, Blistex, Federal Signal, CenterPoint Properties, Sanford L.P., TreeHouse Foods, Lions Clubs International, the U.S. Census Bureau Chicago regional office, and former headquarters of McDonald's and Ferrara Candy.

Oak Brook was originally known as Fullersburg, named after Ben Fuller, an early settler.

[4] 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.

In 1964 Butler entered a joint venture with the Del E. Webb Corporation of Phoenix, Arizona, to increase development of the area.

[6] 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.

Most of Oak Brook consists of residential subdivisions, with the exception of the Oakbrook Center shopping mall and other retail and office properties along 22nd Street and the Interstate 88 corridor in the northern part of the village.

[14] Other corporations include Ace Hardware,[15] Blistex,[16] Crowe Horwath, TreeHouse Foods, Federal Signal,[17] Sanford, CenterPoint Properties, Dantech Information Technology,[18] Hub Group and Follett Higher Education Group.

The Institute in Basic Life Principles, a controversial Christian sect founded by Bill Gothard, was formerly based in Oak Brook; however, it would sell its facilities and relocate to Texas.