The Fascinating Story Behind Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Holiday House

Table Of Content

• Unpacking Taylor Swift’s New Song About Her Rhode Island Mansion
• Taylor Swift’s Holiday House was once owned by Rebekah Harkness
• Hilltop Mega Home In Turkey With 22 Bedrooms
• And it opens on to 700 feet of sandy shoreline — a perfect location for A-list parties.
• Inside Taylor Swift's huge $17m vacation home with a rich history that inspired one of her songs
• The Fascinating Story Behind Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Holiday House

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. L'Officiel has listed High Watch as one of the most expensive celebrity homes in the Americas. Built in 1930, the mansion sits on the highest point in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, and features 700 feet of shoreline and views of Little Narragansett Bay, according to the real-estate site Zillow. The Instagram post of Swift and her "girlies" in Watch Hill "sittin', there by the water" comes after the songstress dropped the re-release of her 2010 album at midnight on Friday. "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" is the third in her series of re-recordings since the sale of her master recordings in 2020.

Unpacking Taylor Swift’s New Song About Her Rhode Island Mansion

Look around the room and describe the setting using lofty prose or personify the objects around you. Or create a character and tell their story – think of Swift’s love triangle in the “Betty,” “Cardigan” and “August” trilogy or “No Body, No Crime,” in which she slips into the skin of a vengeance-seeking best friend. Maya Angelou, William Wordsworth, Frank O’Hara, Sylvia Plath and Amanda Gorman are among the greats. Look to your favorite songwriters and ask yourself, "What do I admire about their craft?" Atkins also recommends looking for a poem about a subject you're passionate about. "It's for everybody to see, I think it's a great piece and it's a tribute to the owner of that property."

Taylor Swift’s Holiday House was once owned by Rebekah Harkness

The Newport mansion, called Bird House, on Beacon Hill Road has six bedrooms and six bathrooms and features grand views of the outside. Leno lives primarily on the West Coast, but, like Conan, he was born in raised in Massachusetts and has family on the East Coast. On a visit to Newport in 2017, he was driving with his wife along Ocean Drive, saw the house they had once admired 30 years ago, pulled over, found out it was for sale, and bought it with everything inside for $15 million. When telling this story to a USA Today network reporter in 2019, he said getting the house with everything in it was a big selling point, as it ensured he would never have to spend time thinking about fabric swatches, which he described as a nightmare. "Their parties were tasteful, if a little loud," Taylor wrote and that's just what she set out to do.

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He put the house up for sale in 2017, but in December he was embroiled in a conflict with the town when he challenged his neighbor's plans to build a home on the edge of Boone Lake. The “A Thousand Miles” singer has been posting snapshots of her family's circa 1803 Federal Colonial home on Instagram since 2021. A playground for the rich and the famous during the Gilded Age, the shorelines are dotted with mansions. Some of them are tourist attractions, but others are still functioning vacation homes for today’s elite. Swift no longer owns this ranch-style home, which reflects the midcentury modern designs of 1950s Hollywood, when it was built. Sitting at the base of lush green hills, the great location creates an airy, sunlight-filled home.

And it opens on to 700 feet of sandy shoreline — a perfect location for A-list parties.

It was built onto of Watch Hill, creating a beautiful view of the land when anyone looks out the window. However, purchasing the home, which is known as High Watch or Holiday House, wasn't just about luxury — it comes with a charming history, too. 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.

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There are also songs that are seemingly aimed at other figures in Swift's life, good and bad. From giddy love songs about her current boyfriend Travis Kelce, to relatable anthems about awful "situationships," aimed at suspected fling Matty Healy. A few songs even seem to throw shade at her long-time adversary Kim Kardashian.

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What she failed to mention at the time though, is how much she related to the woman who famously owned the house before her. 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). 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. 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.

Inside Taylor Swift's huge $17m vacation home with a rich history that inspired one of her songs

There were scandals—mostly not of her own making, but resulting from the greed of others—that cost her several small fortunes to clean up. She made 46 silent films and 11 talking pictures before essentially leaving the business, in 1931, after suffering a breakdown. But she did hang on to one LA property — the 1934 Georgian Revival estate she purchased for a whopping $25 million. One of her first real estate purchases was at 20 when she bought a 3,240-square-foot penthouse on Nashville’s Music Row for $1.9 million. The three-bedroom abode is a corner duplex with soaring ceilings at the Adelicia complex.

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Her first NYC real estate purchase was made in 2014, buying two adjacent penthouses in a Tribeca building for $19.95 million. She was released on $1,000 personal recognizance and scheduled for a District Court arraignment on July 14, according to court records. She spends a lot of time touring and in Nashville, but she does have a farm in Rhode Island and has talked about it publicly as recently as February 2023. She bought the farm during the pandemic and told the Illinois Entertainer that they have goats, donkeys and some other farm animals. Unlike those who have chosen an ocean view, Woods lives on the edge of Boone Lake in Exeter. The land, not far from the Arcadia Management Area, has been owned by his family for decades.

Inside Taylor Swift's epic $17 million Rhode Island 'holiday house' - HELLO!

Inside Taylor Swift's epic $17 million Rhode Island 'holiday house'.

Posted: Thu, 29 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

In June 2011, she purchased the 5,600-square-foot main house for $2.5 million. Built in 1934, the main house is made up of four bedrooms and five bathrooms, along with a 2,000-square-foot guest house added in 1964. Dubbed the “Holiday House,” the Watch Hill mansion was bought by Swift in 2013, complete with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a past that ties it to the Standard Oil fortune. The songwriter spun the story of the house’s past — and the divorcee who lived there, Rebekah Harkness — into the song "Great American Dynasty” in her eighth studio album, "Folklore." Plus, there are another 5.23 acres of land that come with it, some of which include 700 feet of private beach.

The album features the 14 original tracks (including singles "Mine," "Back to December," "Mean," "Sparks Fly," "Ours," and "The Story of Us) plus the two bonus tracks and six "vault" tracks with Fall Out Boy and Hayley Williams of Paramore. Front and center are the ocean views, of course, but also the garden, which was carefully cultivated by the home’s previous owner, late Campbell Soup heiress Dorrance H. Hamilton, who was known for her love of gardens and helped start the Newport Flower Show. It was the spot of her much-talked-about Fourth of July parties from 2013 to 2017, and last summer Blake Lively posted photos of herself and husband Ryan Reynolds visiting there.

Whatever you are feeling or going through, we can almost guarantee there is a Taylor Swift song for that. However, the pricey pad is just one fraction of Swift’s over $80 million real estate portfolio. Rather than lavish paintings, Swift opted for black-and-white photos of her friends and family — which seemingly line one of her hallway walls. The home, which has eight fireplaces and 10 bathrooms, sits on 5.23 acres and features a sprawling back patio with a massive pool.

Martha Hunt also showed off the tiled patio which was adorned with white lounge chairs as Ruby Rose later featured a fire pit in a picture. In early 2018, the 12-time Grammy winner paid $9.75 million for an additional three-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot loft on the second floor of the same TriBeCa building, dramatically upping her stake in the super-coveted 155 Franklin Street. The full story of Holiday House is featured in season 3 of House Beautiful's haunted house podcast, Dark House. In fact, the 14-time Grammy winner reportedly offered up her saltbox house on the coast to Hadid and Bradley Cooper during the early stages of their romance last year.

In this sprawling home, there are eight bedrooms, ten bathrooms, and eight fireplaces. Rebekah, who also founded her own ballet company, died of cancer in 1982. The house sat empty on the beach until Taylor bought it in 2013 for an alleged all-cash deal of $17 million. Taylor seems to confirm that she was the house's next owner in the song, singing, "Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / And then it was bought by me." Rebekah was born in St. Louis and was married to William Hale Harkness, who was the heir to the fortune of Standard Oil.