Lower Level
The basement level of the home has gone through changes similar to the upper floors. Each time the home added on, the basement level was also dug out to add plenty of space for staff work areas and storage. Enjoy your tour through the lower level, experiencing
the 1917 and 1925 changes to the home.

Experience how guests arrived under the Library through the Porte-Cochere and left their outerwear in the Coat Room before continuing up the stairs to the First Floor. Then, view the Oak Room used by the Butterworths for more casual entertainment. Finally, get a peek into the staff side of the basement and a look down a tunnel connecting the house to the garage.
Porte – Cochere
The Porte-Cochere “carriage porch” entrance was added along with the new Library in 1917. By this time carriages no longer arrived at the home, only automobiles. The Butterworths’ guests could arrive at the property conveniently from 8th Street and exit onto 11th Avenue. After being dropped off, guests entered the home through the Porte-Cochere entrance, remove their coats before walking up the staircase to the First Floor to be greeted by the Butterworths.
Doors
The elaborate metal double doors, with a brass “B” insert for “Butterworth,” provide a striking first impression for everyone who enters.
Porte-Cochere Entry Area:
The ceiling of the Porte-Cochere Entry area displays a variety of painted animals and plants. Each animal bears significance from a religious perspective. For example, three fish forming a circle signify the rite of baptism or the Holy Trinity. The leviathan, located closest to the inside doors, is a sea monster referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible.
Coat Room
The ample Coat Room enabled guests to stop before heading up to the First Floor. The oak floor, marble baseboard and walls of polished knotted pine provide a classic first stop for guests. The knotted pine was purchased for the Butterworths from a manor house in England for the 1920s renovation.
Oak Room
The Oak Room as it appeared in the 1920s
The Oak Room as it appears today
The décor may look a bit different from the rest of the house. The Oak Room is decorated in the Arts and Crafts style, which challenged the tastes of the Victorian era, choosing to create environments which featured functionally beautiful objects. The general form of Arts and Crafts style was typically rectilinear and angular, with decorative motifs borrowed from Medieval Europe, Islamic, and Japanese design. Some of the best-known
examples of this style come from renowned architect
Frank Lloyd Wright.
There has always been an Oak Room at Hillcrest, although the original room did not extend quite as far north. In 1917, the room was enlarged during the major renovation of the new Library and the neo-classical Porte-cochere entrance.

The Oak Room was redecorated in the 1920s in the newly popular Arts and Crafts style. This room was mainly used by gentlemen after dinner to enjoy a cigar or glass of brandy or, more popularly, as a card and game room. Most of the furniture and fixtures in this room are original to the home when the Butterworths lived here.
Special Features

The beautiful Turkish lamp was purchased by the Butterworths and fits perfectly with the Arts and Crafts love of decorative motifs borrowed from Medieval Europe and Islamic designs.

Cigars were a luxury and a hefty investment, even for the wealthy. Humidors are sealed boxes or drawers typically made of Spanish cedar wood or lined with metal, which maintain a constant humidity and does not allow cigars to dry out. It was customary after a dinner party for Mr. Butterworth to invite gentleman guests downstairs for a cigar. Scattered throughout the room are combination humidor-smoking stands which hold, disposed of, and stored his premium cigars.  

The general form of Arts and Crafts style was typically rectilinear and angular.  

The painted wallpaper provides a unique element to the room.

The Arts and Crafts style challenged the tastes of the Victorian era, choosing to create 

environments that featured functionally beautiful objects. The Frank Lloyd Wright style 

ceiling fixtures provide a functional and classic look to the room.

Before glass could be manufactured in sheets, window panes were made by spinning molten glass at the end of a tool to form a large round plate. Where the tool touched the glass, a large dome, or bullseye, was created. This lower quality glass was frequently used in barns and sheds. The bull’s eye glass in the Oak Room may have been chosen to fit the Arts and Crafts style to add visual interest to the windows, or to mark the less formal nature of the room.

A favorite pastime of both William and Katherine Butterworth was bridge, a card game played with four people. On many occasions, both rooms were filled with tables of friends and business associates playing this challenging game. 

Staff Work Area
The Staff Side of the Basement:
The hall off the Oak Room leads to the staff side of the basement. This area is not open for tours, but here is a glimpse of the tunnel and the silver vault that connects Butterworth Center to the Education Center. Along with the silver vault and tunnel, this area houses a laundry room and storage rooms.
The tunnel was built in the 1910s, providing the staff with easy access between the House and Garage (now the Butterworth Education Center)
The silver vault was added during the 1925 remodeling. When the First Floor Dining Room was enlarged, the basement was expanded. The cabinet-lined room was protected by a vault door. We know that on rainy days, staff often worked in the vault polishing the silver.

Meet the Staff
Anna Malmstead
Group of Butterworth staff outside Deer Lodge in California, Anna Malmstead is on the far left, c. 1932-1940.
Albert Boost
Photo of Albert Boost
Anna Malmstead took care of all Butterworth laundry needs from 1912-1954. She often traveled to Santa Barbara with the family. Butler Albert Boost’s daughter, Elinor, described her as “a quiet gentle woman who once took me to her sanctuary in the basement and introduced me to all her machinery and equipment.” Elinor remarked about the effort it took to wash clothing, “I couldn’t believe all that was necessary for just two people, Mr. and Mrs. Butterworth. I decided at an early age not to go into the laundry business.”



His most memorable experience happened in 1948 when Prince Bertil of Sweden was a guest at the Butterworths home. The Prince asked Boost about Mrs. Butterworth. Boost replied, “Everybody in the town knows how good she is, her many charities, her kindnesses the wonderful things she has done for the community. She is the best to work for, really takes care of her help.” After life at the Butterworth home (1911 or ‘15 – 1953) Boost retired to Santa Barbara with his family.


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