It was less than a year after Oak Brook incorporated as a village in 1958, but that didn’t stop early residents from celebrating as a community.
Audrey Muschler, who has lived in the town since 1959 and raised three sons there, remembers neighbors gathering in the prairie behind the Yorkshire Woods subdivision.
“It was a very strong community, as far as our little subdivision,” recalled Muschler, a co-founder and past president of the Oak Brook Historical Society. “We had 49 homes in our subdivision and 79 children. We got together a lot for social events and holiday parties.”
In neighboring Hinsdale, which dates further back–it was incorporated in 1873–community gatherings always have been a high priority, said Shirley Stitt, a resident since 1951.
“That’s typical of a small town,” said Stitt, former archive chairman of the Hinsdale Historical Society. “Social gatherings have always been an important way for people to celebrate their community’s heritage, be it an informal back-yard barbecue or a 4th of July Parade that’s attended by nearly everyone who lives in the town.”
Those who reside in Oak Brook and Hinsdale are quick to point out how community is an invisible ribbon, of sorts, that ties people together.
“When it comes down to it, creating a sense of community does two things,” said Karen Bushy, village president of Oak Brook since 1991 and a resident since 1973. “It allows people to create a mechanism to better their town. And it gives people a reason to socialize with each other.”
The ways the towns’ residents have demonstrated their sense of community has evolved over the years as the towns have grown from settlements of a few dozen people to two of Chicagoland’s more well-known suburbs.
More than a century ago, much of the social activities of the community focused around the churches. “People would simply gather in the fields near the church and enjoy food, drink, games and music together,” Stitt said. “It was a simple gathering, a picnic really.
“The people we interviewed for the Hinsdale Historical Society records talked so fondly of those days.”
The local geography also provided community activities. Swimming, fishing and canoeing were common warm weather practices in Salt Creek. So were family picnics and impromptu concerts along its banks.
In the 1900s, several community institutions that have long been supported by the towns and residents opened their doors. In 1922, the Oak Brook Polo Club was established and eventually evolved into the what is now the Sports Core, where local residents bike, golf, ride horses and play tennis. The Village of Oak Brook purchased the Sports Core in 1977.
“One of the reasons we bought it was because it was the focal point of activity in Oak Brook before Oak Brook was incorporated as a community,” Bushy said.
Today, the Sports Core not only provides recreational opportunities but is the gathering place for such events as the town’s 4th of July celebration and Autumn Festival.
In Hinsdale, much of the social activity focuses around two longtime establishments: the Community House, 415 W. Eighth St., where endeavors include baby-sitting classes and book clubs, and the Hinsdale Center for the Arts, 5903 S. County Line Rd., which encourages the visual and performing arts through lessons, exhibits and festivals.
“The Community House goes back 60 years and recently went through a major expansion,” said George Faulstich, village president of Hinsdale since May and a resident since 1976. “It has long served the town as a center for activity and will continue to do so. That also happens with the Center for the Arts, and now people are working to transform the old Hinsdale movie theater into a center that would also draw people.”
Today, much of the community activity in the towns is concentrated around outdoor social events–whether gathering for summer concerts at the Oak Brook Park District’s Central Park or selecting freshly picked fruits and flowers from the Hinsdale Farmer Market.
Most of the endeavors, officials in the towns say, could not take place without the help of residents and businesspeople.
“That’s the way it has always been here in Hinsdale,” Faulstich said.
“It’s the residents that create that sense of community.”
“These events require a lot of help from a lot of people,” Bushy said.
“The Oak Brook Civic Association, for example, predates the incorporation of the village.
“And our Autumn Festival started as a total grass-roots situation.
“Two mothers had the idea and started it at Butler Junior High School where it ran for several years. Then it kept getting bigger and bigger. So it’s been at the Sports Core for the last several years.
“But the wonderful thing about that is how people come forward to help,” Bushy added.
“The community spirit here is incredible.”
