FORMER CHRISTOPHER CRISP RESIDENCE

The Former Christopher Crisp Residence includes a c.1860 single-storey cottage of rendered brick with a south-facing verandah; an 1868 adjoining single-storey dwelling with a slate roof and ornate concave verandah facing Gisborne Road; and a T-shaped red brick outbuilding, constructed during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Initially constructed for a co-founder of the Bacchus Marsh Express, William Watson, it was further developed by newspaper editor and proprietor Christopher Crisp.

The Former Christopher Crisp Residence is of historical significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register: 

Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.

Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Victoria’s history.

The Former Christopher Crisp Residence is historically significant for its associations with the development and production of local newspapers in regional Victoria during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Former Christopher Crisp Residence is part of a group of adjacent buildings which were integral to the development of the Bacchus Marsh Press from the 1860s, including the Bacchus Marsh Express Office and Printing Works (VHR H0504) and the former residence at 6 Gisborne Road (VHR H0503). [Criterion A]

 

The Former Christopher Crisp Residence is historically significant for its association with the prominent newspaper proprietor Christopher Crisp, who was the editor of the Bacchus Marsh Express from 1866 until his death in 1915. Under Crisp’s direction, the Express became one of the most notable regional newspapers in Victoria, widening its readership and obtaining subscriptions from public men and civil servants in Melbourne. [Criterion H]