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M.S.C. Club History 
(From a tribute by Harold F. Hammond, 1970, and a club history by Don Shannon, 1965)
On the evening of VJ Day, 1945, (just where, in Maywood, seems to be a moot question), a small group of 6 Maywoodians met in the back room of some business establishment and voiced their dissatisfaction with the squabbling, factionalism, and dissention which were prevalent in a certain sportsmen's club with which they were affiliated. They decided to form a NEW club, and this was the start of what is now the Maywood Sportsmen's Club.
Art Olsen was elected Interim President, and the new M.S.C. was chartered with the State of Illinois in 1945. Articles of Incorporation were filed, and the incorporation (Not For Profit) was completed on September 15th, 1947.
Meetings were held in the old Masonic Temple on 5th Avenue on Monday Evenings. The small hall on the 4th floor became "The Sky Club", where informal meetings were popular on Friday nights. Regular meetings were held on the first floor, where, after singing sessions and business were disposed of, many of the sportsmen entertained the rest of the membership with tales and pictures of "the one that didn't get away".
While Harold Hammond was president in 1947, the club leased for 5 years, five or six acres of land near the corner of 5th and North Avenues. The property included a small lake, and was little more than a dump. The members jumped into a cleanup and building job. The lake and the land were cleared of junk, the plot landscaped, one trap was installed (a hand-trap), a small pier, a shelter-house, and "His'n and Her'n" Outhouses were built by the members. The club offered a prize to the member who submitted the best name for the layout, and Don Shannon collected with the name, "The Retreat".
While we had fun at The Retreat, and held meetings at the Temple, during 1947 to 1952, a site committee was working at the job of finding a permanent location for M.S.C. The club was notified in 1952 that the rent was to be hiked to $150.00 per month, rather than the $20.00 we had been paying. THEN the Site Committee REALLY went to work.
We looked at many proposed locations, and finally selected the 66 acres (the Seven Brother Farm) offered by the Elm Lawn Cemetery.
The original land patents on the property were issued in 1840 to Henry Schultz and Conrad Fischer and were recorded in 1848 and 1868. Conrad Fischer and Schultz deeded to Augustus Fischer in 1856 and 1868, Augustus Fischer to Liza Fischer in 1894, and then to Otto Fischer, and Otto Fischer to Elm Lawn Cemetery in 1928.
Thus, the Fischer families were on this property for almost 90 years. The cemetery deeded to the Maywood Sportsmen's Club on August 29th, 1952.
Wheels of progress rolled rapidly, as down came old buildings, and with a great deal of planning, new facilities were built. A slow meandering stream became "Trout Lake", built by hand, by the willing sportsmen members.
The development of the adjacent Tollway, through the exchange of dollars for soil, put the building program in high gear, and almost overnight came the beautiful twenty-six acre lake, bathing beaches, electric trap facilities, and new club house, and other buildings.
The dream of a Gun club transformed into a full recreational for Sportsmen became a reality.
We have much to be proud of. The strength and success of this club were the men and women of character, united in a common cause, that built this wonderful facility known as- "The Maywood Sportsmen's Club".
Some Historic Documents