This cottage, probably built between 1905 and 1915 by contractor Andrew Bain as a rental property, has historical and architectural significance as a representative example of an early twentieth century worker’s cottage. The land on which this cottage is built was part of a leasehold block of land owned by the Invercargill Borough Council. When Section 12 was first offered for lease in October 1901, it was unimproved. In 1901 builder Andrew Bain took up the lease. The lease remained in the Bain family until 1957. The cottage may have been built by Bain shortly after he took up the lease along with cottages on the adjoining section (Section 11) that he also owned. The cottage at 97 Ness Street is the only remaining of a group of worker’s cottages built on Ness Street in the early years of the twentieth century. The cottage is F-shaped in plan with a single gable symmetrical façade facing Ness Street transected by two parallel gabled sections at the rear. Built of timber and clad in weatherboard it is a typical cottage. Bain did not live in the cottage himself, so it appears to have been rented out. Street directories indicate that the address 97 Ness Street was not allocated until 1916, and that Rous Mabson lived at that address. Mabson was a building contractor and he first appears on Ness Street in 1912. In 1908, there were four households living on Ness Street between Tweed and Teviot Streets. In 1911, there were five households, so it is possible that the cottage was built between 1908 and 1911. A real estate advertisement from 1920 provides some additional clues: agent W.A. Ott offers for sale Bain’s properties on Ness Street – three ‘excellent dwellings’ on the corner of Tweed and Ness Streets (one of six rooms, the others four rooms), and also three dwellings adjoining the others on the corner of Teviot and Ness Streets - the corner house having six rooms, and the other two houses, four rooms. This makes it likely that Bain did built the houses as rental properties. In 2018, the cottage remains a private residence.