MUELLER, Theodore Gerhard (1899-1967) was active in Toronto as the designer in charge of the architectural department for the Home Smith Co., a property development agency headed by Robert Home Smith who initiated much of the residential construction in the exclusive Kingsway neighbourhood in west Toronto. Born in Toronto on 23 July 1899 he was the son of Rev. Paul W. Mueller, a professor of German language at McMaster University in Toronto, and attended the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of Toronto from 1919 until 1921. He may have collaborated with A. Colpoys Wood, another talented designer hired by R.H. Smith, to plan some of the institutional and commercial buildings on Smith's tract of land along the Humber River during the mid-1920's, and his influence on the design of houses there was considerable (E. Ingolfsrud & A. Keefer, Kingsway Park: Triumph in Design, 1994, 8-9, 21; Toronto Star, 28 June 2003, L8) . In early 1930 Mueller left his position with Smith and opened his own office in Toronto (Const., xxiii, April 1930, 141), but the lack of work during the Depression provided few opportunities for major commissions, and by 1931 he had formed a partnership with Robert J. Nicholls. This business relationship lasted less than a year, and Mueller remained in Ontario until March 1936 when he moved to the United States. He lived in Denville, New Jersey (1940), then became a full citizen of the USA in April 1947. By 1957 he was living and working in Wichita, Kansas as an engineer with Beech Aircraft Ltd. (City of Wichita Directory, 1959, p. 923). He remained there until 1963, then moved again, this time to Omaha, Nebraska where he died in July 1967 (biog. in Canadian Who's Who, 1936-37, 810; inf. from University of Toronto Archives, Acc. A69-0008, Box 9)
T. G. MUELLER
QUEEN MARY'S DRIVE, pair of houses for an unidentified client, 1929 (Const., xxii, Aug. 1929, 258-62, illus.)
THE KINGSWAY, residence for Frank A. Gaul, 1929 (Const., xxii, Aug. 1929, 258-62, illus.)
STRATH AVENUE, residence for Archibald Perkins, 1929 (Const., xxii, Aug. 1929, 258-62, illus.)
BERRY AVENUE, residence for Hubert Duern, 1929 (Const., xxii, Aug. 1929, 258-62, illus.)
THE KINGSWAY, residence for George G. Myers, 1929 (Const., xxii, Aug. 1929, 258-62, illus.)
ROYAL YORK GOLF CLUB (now St. George's Golf & Country Club), Islington Avenue North near Princess Margaret Boulevard, a large clubhouse, 1929; still standing in 2022 (Weston Times & Guide, 2 Jan. 1929, 3; Toronto Daily Star, 18 Oct. 1929, 10, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xliii, 30 Oct. 1929, 61; Const., xxiii, July 1930, 216-20, 222, 225-6, illus. & descrip.)
BABY POINT ROAD, residence for L. Percival Cadieux, 1930-31 (C.R., xliv, 3 Dec. 1930, 51)
THE KINGSWAY, residence for Dr. Leo Schumacher, c. 1931 (Const., xxv, Feb. 1932, 45-6, illus.)
MUELLER & NICHOLLS
QUEEN MARY'S DRIVE, residence for Dr. Victor H. Large, 1931 (Const., xxv, Feb. 1932, 46, illus.)
QUEEN MARY'S DRIVE, residence for A.P. Reid, 1931 (E. Ingolfsrud & A. Keefer, Kingsway Park: Triumph in Design, 1994, 40, 58, illus.)