According to architectural historian H. Allen Brooks, "His influence on the Midwest was profound and prolonged and, in its time, was certainly as great as was [Frank Lloyd] Wright's.

Compared with the conventional architecture of the day, his work showed considerable freedom and originality, and his interiors were notable for their open and flowing...space".

George Maher was born in Mill Creek, West Virginia, but, as a small boy, moved with his parents, Pennsylvania-born Sarah Landis and Virginia-born chemist Theophile Maher whose father had immigrated from France, to New Albany, Indiana, where he attended public schools.

In 1887 he joined the office of architect Joseph L. Silsbee, in Chicago's Lakeside Building, as a draftsman where he worked with Frank Lloyd Wright and George Grant Elmslie.

[3] In addition to Kenilworth, one of the largest concentrations of his work is along Hutchinson Street, on Chicago's North Side lakefront.

In 1887 Inland Architect published a paper he had written titled "Originality in American Architecture," one of the first of many he would write.

[7] Commissioned in 1897, one of Maher's most important designs is the John Farson House in Oak Park, Illinois, also known as Pleasant Home.

In this house, Maher synthesized his own version of what would ultimately come to be called the Prairie School style of architecture.

[8] One of the earliest Prairie style buildings, its design concept proved to be extremely influential in its time and was widely copied throughout the Midwest.

Over the years Maher designed numerous houses for clients ranging from middle class businessmen to wealthy society figures.

Other notable projects were several buildings for the J. R. Watkins Medical Company (1911) including their administrative headquarters in Winona, Minnesota.

The momentum of the Prairie School movement began to rapidly decline in the mid teens as clients' tastes and interests changed, forcing many of its followers to turn in other directions.

In the early 1920s Maher designed multiple buildings and landscapes throughout the Chicago area and in Gary, Indiana where the firm produced a number of projects.