Taylor Swift Rhode Island Beach House, Watch Hill

Table Of Content

• Merv Griffin’s legendary desert estate hits the market for $36M
• Napatree Beach
• Taylor Swift was back at Watch Hill for a Fourth of July bash. Here's who came with her.
• A secret love nest for Taylor’s friends?
• The Fascinating Story Behind Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Holiday House
• Taylor Swift's Guide to Rhode Island

The mansion was once owned by Rebekah Harkness, a high-profile socialite who famously married into the Standard Oil fortune. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Merv Griffin’s legendary desert estate hits the market for $36M

A Colonial-style mansion, High Watch sits on a 5-acre (2.0 ha) seafront estate that includes a private beach. 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. 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. Since then, the musician has put her hard-earned, lavish home to good use by hosting numerous parties with famous friends, known as her squad.

Napatree Beach

And there’s no telling how much more she’ll conquer in the kingdom of real estate (and what new songs she’ll sing about them), amid a successful tour that Forbes estimates will make her a billionaire by the end of this year. Many fans and news outlets have inferred that the woman in question is Rebekah Harkness, a socialite, philanthropist, and patron of the ballet, who Vogue reports once owned Holiday House, the same Watch Hill, Rhode Island, mansion Swift purchased in 2013 for $17.75 million. 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.

Taylor Swift was back at Watch Hill for a Fourth of July bash. Here's who came with her.

Taylor Swift Alleged Trespasser Arrested Outside Rhode Island Home - TMZ

Taylor Swift Alleged Trespasser Arrested Outside Rhode Island Home.

Posted: Fri, 07 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The “Cruel Summer” singer, whom Forbes recently named a billionaire, mostly tries to keep her private life out of the spotlight, but she has occasionally shared some photos inside her Big Apple abode. While Taylor was not home during the once-in-a-lifetime tour, she had met Conroy prior to that and even wrote the title of her 2008 album, “Fearless,” on a piece of paper for him so he could get it tattooed on his foot. The property sits on 5 acres of land and has more than 700 feet of beachfront on top of the highest point in Watch Hill, giving the singer unobstructed views of the water. When Swift needs a little getaway, she has her Rhode Island home to escape to.

Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets Department' drops Friday. Here's where to celebrate in RI.

The Rhode Island mansion has been the site of listening sessions and Fourth of July celebrations, including this year. Swift shared an Instagram post documenting her weekend festivities at the home, pictured are friends like Selena Gomez and the Haim sisters. Ironically, the public part of that beach is harder to find than the private parts. To the left, it belongs to Ocean House, a spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) hotel originally built 150 years ago, where celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Jessica Simpson, and the late, great Regis Philbin were seen.

The Hollywood Couple Using Rhode Island Home As Love Nest - FUN 107

The Hollywood Couple Using Rhode Island Home As Love Nest.

Posted: Tue, 17 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

” Swift sings the words with a kind of tiptoeing confidence, as if she were finding her way to an idea, a possibility—the potential for a grand, amazing life, something deeply yearned for but just out of reach. And she’s looking at someone else—or perhaps she’s outside herself, looking at a self she used to be, or might have been, or has already become, the way little kids (and maybe some adults) imagine God as a guy who sits on a cloud all day observing his creations. Her phrasing is bell-like in its clarity; the melody has a halting naivete, like a nursery rhyme. If Swift doesn’t exactly know where she’s going with her idea, you can be sure she’ll have it figured out by the song's end. In 2017, she purchased a 100-year-old, four-story townhouse next door for $18 million.

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." Swift rented this 1870 brick townhouse, made famous after her well-known lyric “I rent a place on Cornelia Street,” between 2016 and 2017 while her $50 million TriBeCa loft was undergoing renovations. Today, this charming dig is officially on the market for a cool $17.9 million or available to rent for $45,000 a month.

Had she been of a previous generation, she might have avoided the rough scene the hotel is known, but she's of the same artistic caliber as its famous residents. However, she insists that she and her lover aren't on that level, touting poet Dylan Thomas and musician Patti Smith instead. Whatever Taylor Swift's relationship may be to Clara Bow’s movies, it does appear that she’s seen lots of the star’s Hollywood portraits. Swift fans, experts at the deep dive, have uncovered portraits of Swift that are styled much like Bow’s; she’s seen perched in similar poses, even, in some cases, wearing similar capes, furry stoles, or camisole-type tops. And the ensemble Swift wore to the Grammys—a white satin strapless sheath festooned with pearls and an Art Deco-stye watch fashioned into a choker—so closely resembles one Bow wore in a publicity photograph that there’s no way it can’t be a direct reference.

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. These days, when she is in Music City, she is probably spending her time at the grand Greek revival estate known as the Northumberland Estate. 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.

Back in 2015, several of her famous friends — including Gigi Hadid, Joe Jonas and Martha Hunt — shared photos from the fun-filled weekend to their Instagrams. Taylor has been photographed entering and leaving her multimillion-dollar townhouse several times over the years, most recently while hanging out with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. Taylor bought her Tribeca pad for $18 million in 2014 and later expanded the space by purchasing the three units above her –– for roughly $10 million each –– and renovating them to create an 8,300-square-foot duplex. On Taylor Swift's newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which was released on April 19 in a surprise double-length drop, there are a myriad of references to places, relationships, and feelings, both past and present.

For the last three years, however, the place has belonged to Taylor Swift, bought for $17.75 million, reportedly in an all-cash deal. And the people frolicking on its lawns aren’t ballet dancers, but rather Ms. Swift’s famous friends from the music and fashion worlds. It has become a landmark of a different sort, familiar to Ms. Swift’s 86 million Instagram followers, for the annual Fourth of July party she holds there. Swift has been shaking off doubters ever since, amassing eight diverse pads, ranging from a $150 million penthouse in Manhattan’s TriBeCa neighborhood to an 11,000-square-foot historical landmark in California.

Her last Fourth of July party there was in 2016, the year of the Kimye feud and Swift’s ensuing cancellation. I was on East Beach the day of the party; there were paparazzi camped out all over. (I saw a man and a woman playing football on the lawn of her house, but all I know for sure was that the man was definitely not Ryan Reynolds.) That summer was also the last time she was photographed publicly in the state. 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 pop star’s favorite spots to visit around town when she's staying at her Watch Hill mansion. Swift was so fascinated with Rebekah that another song on Folklore is titled “Betty,” a clear reference to Rebekah Harkness’s nickname. Swift likens her own star-studded parties to the bevy of famous composers and dancers that once frequented the Holiday House in Harkness’ days. 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).