Table Of Content
- Last day to save! Roborock just solved all of our problems with this cutting-edge vacuum on sale
- Want more celebrity and pop culture news?
- The Fascinating Story Behind Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Holiday House
- Alexis DeJoria owns Ocean Lawn in Newport
- Justin Bieber sparks fans' concern as he breaks down in tears in Instagram snaps
- A piece of Rhode Island history
- Taylor Swift was back at Watch Hill for a Fourth of July bash. Here's who came with her.
It’s well known around these parts that comedian Conan O’Brien is a New Englander, with a Boston, Irish Catholic background and a Harvard degree to boot. Slightly less known is that his family has a vacation home in Watch Hill, which the "Conan" host bought in 1997. Taylor Swift's Rhode Island residency is home to plenty of celebrations for the pop star. Lucia Tonelli is an Assistant Editor at Town & Country, where she writes about the royal family, culture, real estate, design, and more.
Last day to save! Roborock just solved all of our problems with this cutting-edge vacuum on sale
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. The similarities between Taylor and Rebekah may also go much deeper than shared real estate. Much like Rebekah was called out in the press on numerous occasions for being a controversial figure, Taylor has been scrutinized for everything from her dating history to her "squad" of celebrity friends whom she used to frequently attend events with. Taylor makes this connection between the two in the last chorus of the song, singing, "Who knows, if I never showed up, what could've been / There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen / I had a marvelous time ruining everything." Taylor Swift’s 12,000-square-foot beach house sits atop the highest point of the Rhode Island town, serving as the destination for her famous A-list parties (she’s known for throwing Independence Day gatherings here).
Want more celebrity and pop culture news?
Despite its modest facade, the four-bed, four-bath ranch features white beamed ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glass, and, best of all, a 1,000-bottle, climate-controlled wine cellar. It sold for $2.65 million in September, $300,000 less than the asking price. In 2014, Swift bought not one but two adjacent penthouses in an old TriBeCa building at 155 Franklin Street, converting them into one large duplex that has a total of 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, a billiards room, and an incredible sweeping staircase.
The Fascinating Story Behind Taylor Swift's Rhode Island Holiday House

The first a Cape Cod-style cottage for $4 million, the other a smaller single-story home she used as a guesthouse for $2.65 million. In 2017, she purchased a 100-year-old, four-story townhouse next door for $18 million. The three-story townhouse on Franklin Street comes with a gym, a spa, antique French wide-plank oak floors and a planted terrace with a Japanese paper glass wall. In 2018, she bought the second-floor complex to the building for nearly $10 million. The unit, which she bought from financier Jeremy Phillips in an off-market deal, spans 3,540 square feet.
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. 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. 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.
Only three years after purchasing the two TriBeCa penthouses, Swift expanded horizontally, purchasing the century-old townhouse right next door. The home, equipped with luxury amenities including a home theater, gym, guest suite, and terrace, is estimated to be valued at $18 million. It was built in 1915 and was fully renovated by architect and designer Leopoldo Rosati. Swift was so fascinated with Rebekah that another song on Folklore is titled “Betty,” a clear reference to Rebekah Harkness’s nickname. Taylor Swift is notorious for her autobiographical style of songwriting, incorporating her own life experiences into her music.
Justin Bieber sparks fans' concern as he breaks down in tears in Instagram snaps
Arguably one of her most beautiful abodes, it’s old charm complete with modern renovations makes for beyond luxurious (not to mention costly) digs. Her rise to the top began on a Christmas tree farm in Cumru Township, Pennsylvania, before the Swift family moved 15 minutes away to a five-bedroom home in Wyomissing, just outside of Reading. It was in a Georgian Colonial–style home that she first began to exhibit an interest in music and started to play guitar. At 14, Swift convinced her parents to move to Nashville to pursue her music career—which is where she made her first official real estate purchase, in 2009, a condo that she still owns today.
Inside Taylor Swift's iconic $17M Rhode Island vacation home - Page Six
Inside Taylor Swift's iconic $17M Rhode Island vacation home.
Posted: Thu, 29 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Swift likens her own star-studded parties to the bevy of famous composers and dancers that once frequented the Holiday House in Harkness’ days. The mansion was once owned by Rebekah Harkness, a high-profile socialite who famously married into the Standard Oil fortune. 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 was back at Watch Hill for a Fourth of July bash. Here's who came with her.
Several other friends of the super star have also shared photos inside the home’s white kitchen. 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. Although Swift never got the chance to meet the socialite, Harkness still made an impact on the singer-songwriter, who wrote “The Last Great American Dynasty” about her wild lifestyle. 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).
Outdoor features include a gated entrance, terraces, swimming pool and a summer house. The house was built in 1929–1930 for the Snowden family, owners of an oil company, who named it Holiday House. 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 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. Most recently, the singer’s former townhouse in Manhattan’s West Village — where she rented in 2016 while waiting out the renovations of her combination penthouse unit in Tribeca — listed for sale asking $17.99 million. Since 2011, Swift has stockpiled a real estate portfolio worth upward of $80 million.
There are several versions of the album available, including a CD, cassette, vinyl and digital album. Swift announced the album at the Grammys, when she won her 13th career Grammy for pop album of the year. According to JackpotCity’s study and Google search data, the most Taylor Swift-obsessed state in the U.S. is California, where phrases related to Swift are searched an average of 1,436,100 times each month.
The property has seven bedrooms and six bathrooms and includes a three-bedroom apartment next door for Swift’s security team. Indeed, Swift has risen to become the second richest self-made woman in music — with her net worth at a cool $740 million. She has surpassed Madonna’s net worth of $580 million, but ranks behind Rihanna, whose net worth is $1.4 billion. The other pictures show the crew sharing some drinks, sharing a red, white and blue popsicle, and, it looks like, singing karaoke. After skipping the iconic bash for several years, Taylor Swift posted pictures on Instagram on Friday of her celebrating at her Watch Hill Mansion for several of her famous pals. Taylor Swift is bringing back all her different eras – including the Fourth of July party in Rhode Island.
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. "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. Taylor Swift bought an 11,000-square-foot estate in Rhode Island back in 2013 for a whopping $17.75 million — which she reportedly paid for in cash. 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment