The house at 99 McNab Street until 1947 was listed as 89 McNab Street.  The changing of house numbers was a common practice as areas grew.

Stratford was incorporated in 1885 as a city with a population of 9,000 and by
1923 it was a growing city with a lot of activity.  WW1 had ended and the troops had come home, the Spanish flu of 1919 was ending, even though sadly 2067 Stratford folks died from this influenza epidemic. The library was built with $15,000 from Andrew Carnegie, the Normal School (for teacher training) was opened, as were the GTR (CNR) repair shops. By the early 1920’s Stratford was on track to be a major furniture manufacturing center (1/6 of furniture made in Canada). This furniture was shipped to stores by trains using the Grand Trunk Railway. 

As the city boomed so did the home building business.  99 McNab was built in 1923 by George E. Stone. Mr. Stone never lived in the house and sold it to the first owner, Herbert John Cotty.  Herbert (known as Bertie) Cotty was born in 1882 in Martock, Somerset, England.

Bertie’s parents were Charles and Lucy Cotty. He was the 3rd of 8 children whose siblings were: John, William, Kate, Percy, Lily, Blanche, and Wesley. In 1906, Bertie and his sister Kate had sailed for North America.  The rest of the siblings remained in England.  Bertie travelled to Stratford, while Katie traveled to the US where she married and remained in the States for the rest of her life

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Bertie married Agnes Ann Marshall on January 1, 1912.  Agnes was born in Stratford on September 1, 1881. The couple did not have any children. 

At the time of their marriage Bertie was a real estate broker and by 1923 he owned and operated Cotty’s Mortgage – Insurance Company.  His business was located first on Downie Street and then on Ontario Street.   It appears that Agnes also worked in the mortgage business and perhaps this was the basis of their relationship.  Possibly Bertie was doing as many realtors do, purchasing homes as investments, because Bertie and Agnes never lived in this home.  99 McNab Street was rented to a series of tenants until 1948 when the last tenant purchased the home.