Table Of Content
- Trippie Redd shows off his all-black Florida house on Insta & fans (and MGK) have opinions
- A secret love nest for Taylor’s friends?
- A New Taylor Swift Song Tells the Story of the Former Owners of Her Rhode Island Home
- Snowden family
- Harkness family
- Taylor Swift Gives Historical Tours of Her Rhode Island Home to Friends and Family
- History
The coastal mansion, located at 16 Bluff Avenue in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, was built in 1930 and sits on the highest point in the coastal town. The 11,744-square-foot holiday house boasts 700 feet of shoreline and offers sweeping views of Little Narragansett Bay, per Business Insider. According to See Westerly, Watch Hill was used as a lookout during battles dating back before the French and Indian War.
Trippie Redd shows off his all-black Florida house on Insta & fans (and MGK) have opinions
Swift was so fascinated with Rebekah that another song on Folklore is titled “Betty,” a clear reference to Rebekah Harkness’s nickname. The mansion was once owned by Rebekah Harkness, a high-profile socialite who famously married into the Standard Oil fortune. Since Taylor Swift tends to keep her personal life fairly private these days, details about the house have been hard to come by. Biographer Craig Unger gave See Westerly some insight about the famous house, however, describing it as "the single most imposing structure in Watch Hill ..." He added that the house has more than 40 rooms, four chimneys, six terraced sundecks, and a room near the top deck with windows on three sides, providing ample views of the coast.
PHOTOS: A well-lit winter wonderland in Pawcatuck - The Westerly Sun
PHOTOS: A well-lit winter wonderland in Pawcatuck.
Posted: Wed, 09 Dec 2020 08:00:00 GMT [source]
A secret love nest for Taylor’s friends?
What she failed to mention at the time though, is how much she related to the woman who famously owned the house before her. It should come as no surprise that Swift has a special relationship with her Rhode Island mansion; just last year, during an appearance on Ellen, the singer said that the property is her favorite place to spend holidays. And since celebrity homes are in our blood, especially when they come with their own backstory, we just had to do our due diligence and look up Taylor Swift’s house (and the story behind it), and boy, is it a good one. Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, Folklore, came as a surprise to everyone — including the artist’s celebrity friends, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who had cautiously guarded the name of their third daughter since she was born, only to have Swift’s album reveal the name in a track named after her. With the 2020 release of her eighth studio album, Folklore, fans got the opportunity to see a different side of Swift, as she moved away from writing music from her own perspective and, instead, chose to share other people's stories.
A New Taylor Swift Song Tells the Story of the Former Owners of Her Rhode Island Home
Out & About Westerly Band Holiday Concert Lifestyle thewesterlysun.com - The Westerly Sun
Out & About Westerly Band Holiday Concert Lifestyle thewesterlysun.com.
Posted: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Taylor Swift’s new album, Folklore, was released today, and we’re obsessing over one song in particular that tells the story of the former owners of Swift's Rhode Island home, known as Holiday House. The song, titled “The Last Great American Dynasty,” is based on the lives of Rebekah West Harkness (known as "Betty"), a composer and philanthropist who founded Harkness Ballet, and her husband, William Hale “Bill” Harkness, whose family founded Standard Oil. Swift purchased the Watch Hill, Rhode Island, house for $17.75 million (in cash, no less) back in 2013, and has since held numerous—very Instagrammed—Fourth of July parties there. High Watch, formerly named Holiday House but locally known as the Harkness House, is an 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) home situated in Watch Hill, a historic district in Westerly, Rhode Island. The most expensive private home in Rhode Island,[2] High Watch has been owned by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift since 2013 and is a subject of publicity and media attention, mostly known for being the venue of Swift's annual Independence Day parties, attended by a range of celebrities. Featuring many entertainment spaces (not to mention plenty of room for private beach parties), the house’s pool is probably most known among T-Swift fans — as the artist frequently entertained her famous friends here, with pictures from her A-list pool parties ending on social media feeds of celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Ruby Rose, or Cara Delevigne.
But there are plenty of news stories and tabloid speculation as to what goes on in the singer’s secluded abode. And the most intriguing one, as of late, is a secret romance that reportedly took place in Tay Tay’s beach retreat. Swift’s song highlights some of the most outrageous antics the heiress was known for, which included filling up her pool with Dom Pérignon, dyeing one of her pets green, and having a relationship with Salvador Dali (himself known as one of the most eccentric artists in modern history).
Fans got a rare glimpse into Swift's home life in 2016 when she made headlines for an elaborate Fourth of July party, which featured several of her A-list celebrity friends in attendance, including Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and GiGi Hadid. In a now-deleted Instagram post (via Business Insider), Swift shared photos of the partygoers on the beach, at the pool, and in front of the giant inflatable water slide that read, Taymerica, causing many to draw further parallels between Swift and the house's predecessor. Several stalking, trespassing, and home invasion incidents have been reported at the house since Swift's purchase. In 2015, High Watch inspired a proposal by the Governor of Rhode Island to impose a luxury tax on expensive secondary homes in the state. In 2017, Swift was sued over her decision to build a seawall on the beach as plaintiffs argued the beach had been dedicated to the public over the years and Swift had no ownership of it; the courts ruled in Swift's favor. The estate is situated atop Watch Hill's namesake hillock, which was used as a strategic lookout point during some battles in the history of the United States.
Harkness family
After William's death in 1954, it was reported that Rebekah infuriated her neighbors with her quirky and wild antics. Swift includes details in her song about how Rebekah filled the pool with champagne, threw luxurious parties, and played cards with Salvador Dali. The singer also draws parallels between Rebekah's reputation and her own, especially when it comes to their shared tendency to upset society for not always doing what is expected of them. In the lyrics of Taylor Swift's song, "The Last Great American Dynasty," she tells listeners that her Rhode Island mansion sat empty on the coast for 50 years before she purchased it. She also mentions a woman named Rebekah, and it didn't take fans long to discover that the woman in question was Rebekah West Harkness, an heiress from St. Louis who once owned the property, as reported by The Washington Post.
Taylor Swift Gives Historical Tours of Her Rhode Island Home to Friends and Family
"I found myself not only writing my own stories, but also writing about or from the perspective of people I've never met, people I've known, or those I wish I hadn't," she explained in a tweet announcing the arrival of her album. The Snowdens, beginning with George Grant Snowden's father, James McKean Snowden, who was born in 1831 and lived in Pittsburgh, had made their fortune in oil and gas exploration. George Grant Snowden and his brother, James Hastings Snowden, explored for oil first in Pennsylvania and then in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. According to the celebrity insiders at Page Six, “Even though Gigi and Bradley have their own properties in New York, they wanted somewhere more private to spend time getting to know each other and Taylor was only too happy to help,” an insider said. The master’s suite contains a sitting room with a wet bar as well as a widow’s walk terrace — which is a term used to describe a railed rooftop platform with an inner cupola or turret frequently found in 19th-century North American coastal houses. The property spans 5.23 acres and is said to be “the highest point of direct waterfront land on the entire eastern seaboard.” It’s also the most expensive privately owned home in all of Rhode Island.
The name is said to come from the wives of mariners, who would watch for their spouses’ return, often in vain as the ocean took their lives, leaving the women widows. Back in 2013, Taylor Swift paid a whopping $17.75 million for the 7-bedroom mansion — along with 700 feet of shoreline on Watch Hill, in Rhode Island. Taylor Swift is notorious for her autobiographical style of songwriting, incorporating her own life experiences into her music. Only a select few know what happens in the safely guarded compounds of her High Watch house, perched atop Watch Hill, the historic district in Westerly, Rhode Island.
It was purchased in 1948 by Rebekah Harkness, socialite and Standard Oil heiress, who became notorious amongst the local residents for her lavish lifestyle there. In 1974, businessman Gurdon B. Wattles purchased and renovated the house, renaming it as High Watch due to its location. Swift purchased the house for US$17,750,000 in 2013, and inspired by its history and Harkness, released the song "The Last Great American Dynasty" in 2020. In the tweet, she also describes "a misfit widow getting gleeful revenge on the town that cast her out" in reference to the song, "The Last Great American Dynasty." The song happens to be about the woman who lived in Swift's Rhode Island mansion, nicknamed Holiday House, decades before she bought it in 2013 for $17.75 million, per Business Insider. It turns out that Swift's Holiday House has a long history of wealth and lavish parties, and is renowned among locals for its coastal views.
But imagine our surprise when we heard that one of the songs on the album is a reference to the Grammy Award-winner’s house in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The full story of Holiday House is featured in season 3 of House Beautiful's haunted house podcast, Dark House. Swift likens her own star-studded parties to the bevy of famous composers and dancers that once frequented the Holiday House in Harkness’ days. According to Rhode Island Monthly, the couple bought the coastal property soon after the wedding, and they became known for their (as Swift points out herself) “tasteful if a little loud” soirees.
Society, however, was quick to cast out the socialite-turned-widow who already had a reputation for being a bit eccentric. Also known as Betty Harkness, the woman Swift references as being part of The Last Great American Dynasty was a wealthy woman from St. Louis, who founded multiple dance companies. In her day, Harkness was as much of a media darling as Swift is now, and often the target of unfavorable headlines and press coverage. Known as the Holiday House, Taylor Swift’s home in Rhode Island was built in 1930 and comes with 7 bedrooms and even more fireplaces (there are 8 of them throughout the residence).
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