Demarest's basement has six rooms which house students: three rooms on the low side and three on the high side. One houses six men, and the other, six women. Each side has its own bathroom. Inhabitants of the basement are commonly known as Basement Rats.

There are, indeed, many advantages to living in the basement, of which the lack of preceptor is only one. The room ceilings are higher; the windows have sills wide enough to store things; the ML, QL, kitchen, art room, photography room, bike room, and laundry room are all a short walk away; the bathrooms always have plenty of toilet paper; the low-side rooms are close to the door by the bicycle ramp; and you're fairly isolated from the rest of the building's activity.

Some of the advantages to basement-dwelling are double-edged swords; for instance, the isolation may bother those who like noise and commotion around them. The bicycle ramp affords passers-by a close look into the low-side windows. The proximity to the ML often means dealing with piano players and rehearsing bands at all hours. However, the prospect of having access to a bathroom that only six people use on a regular basis delights many.

Demarest's basement has a unique history of its own. The Basement Johnnies, traditionally posted only in the basement bathrooms (and sometimes on the underside of a big wood table in the ML), have been published under many mastheads, by many authors. The first Basement Johnnies were published by Dan Rosenstark in 1989.

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