Table Of Content
- YouTube star FaZe Rug lives in a lavish $4.4M mansion in Poway, CA
- Kim Kardashian Wants Taylor Swift To 'Move On' From Feud: Report
- Inside Taylor Swift's $17 Million Rhode Island 'Holiday House' With 8 Fireplaces, 700ft Private Beach
- She reportedly paid for the mansion by wiring $17.75 million in cash to a realtor in 2013.
- A secret love nest for Taylor’s friends?
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. 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. 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).
YouTube star FaZe Rug lives in a lavish $4.4M mansion in Poway, CA
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. Harkness was married to William Hale Harkness, whose family founded the Standard Oil Company.
Kim Kardashian Wants Taylor Swift To 'Move On' From Feud: Report
“Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train / It was sunny,” Taylor Swift croons in her new song “The Last Great American Dynasty.” In 3 minutes 51 seconds, Swift tells the story of Harkness’s legacy through lyrics. Swift explains it briefly in a verse—Harkness once owned Holiday House, the singer’s current Watch Hill, Rhode Island, home. (Yes, the seaside mansion that was the setting for Taymerica.) However, the connection between the two women, despite being eras apart, may go beyond mere real estate.
Inside Taylor Swift's $17 Million Rhode Island 'Holiday House' With 8 Fireplaces, 700ft Private Beach
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 full story of Holiday House is featured in season 3 of House Beautiful's haunted house podcast, Dark House. Although the “Anti-Hero” singer took a break from hosting the star-studded party for a few years, she held a smaller gathering this past Fourth of July alongside BFFs Selena Gomez and the Haim sisters.
The song will go on to tell us the story of Rebekah Harkness, the founder of the Rebekah Harkness Foundation and a well-known patron of the arts. In the above verse, we are also introduced to her husband Bill, who was the heir to a wealthy oil company. ’ represents the negative assumptions and attitudes towards divorced women like Rebekah, and unmarried or independent woman in general of the time.
Taylor Swift reportedly loaning RI home to Gigi Hadid, Bradley Cooper - The Providence Journal
Taylor Swift reportedly loaning RI home to Gigi Hadid, Bradley Cooper.
Posted: Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
A New Taylor Swift Song Tells the Story of the Former Owners of Her Rhode Island Home
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. On Monday, a 54-year-old woman was arrested and charged with trespassing outside Swift's home, Westerly Police Chief Paul Gingerella confirmed. "Happy belated Independence Day from your local neighborhood independent girlies," the star wrote on Instagram. Taylor Swift is bringing back all her different eras – including the Fourth of July party in Rhode Island. Legendary tales of the woman that Swift describes as a “misfit widow” include filling the pool with Dom Pérignon (and the fish tank with whisky), dying her neighbour’s cat green as an act of revenge, and holding raucous soirées with the likes of Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí. When Harkness died from cancer aged 67 in 1982, her ashes were stored in a $250,000 urn designed by the latter.
She reportedly paid for the mansion by wiring $17.75 million in cash to a realtor in 2013.
In the third song from her eight-studio album, Folklore, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year, Taylor weaves a country-folk lyrical story of the history of her Rhode Island Mansion ‘Holiday House’ that was once owned by the notorious Rebekah Harkness. It says something that she’s been scrutinized this much in a town where, until a public outcry and a rash of bad press in 2016 prompted a change in policy, the Westerly Yacht Club did not allow women to be full-time members. It says something more that when Jay Leno bought a $13.5 million mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, in 2017, nobody said a negative word about it; there was certainly no proposed Jay Leno Tax.
After her husband passed away in 1954, Harkness poured more money into her Watch Hill compound, installing 8 kitchens and 21 baths. She even hosted a ballet workshop there for 20 dancers from the Robert Joffrey Company (now known as the Joffrey Ballet) in 1965. Regarding her mansion's interior, it's reportedly decorated with neutral-colored furniture, per Page Six.
A secret love nest for Taylor’s friends?
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 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.
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. You’ll remember the one – when she and the British actor, he in his ironic (or, as he claims, simply borrowed) “I love TS” t-shirt, frolicked in the waves in front of Swift’s sprawling cliff-top house in the wealthy coastal town of Watch Hill, fuelling endless speculation about their relationship. "Bill was the heir to the Standard Oil name and money," Taylor wrote in the lyrics, allegedly pertaining to Rebekah's second husband, William Hale Harkness, the heir to the Standard Oil fortune. For Independence Day last year, the "Cruel Summer" hitmaker spent time with her "local neighborhood independent girlies" at her seaside estate. Try to imagine a chillier welcome than an entire state attempting to create new tax legislation that was not just aimed at taking your money but was also named after you. It includes eight bedrooms, eight fireplaces, and a pool in the back, which was the site of a notable Fourth of July party that Swift hosted this month.
Her snaps also showed her massive pool adorned with inflatable swans, unicorns and flamingos, as well as an inflatable activity area. In 2015, Gigi Hadid posed in front of her friend Taylor's "saltbox house" in a red one-piece and a pink volleyball. However, the pricey pad is just one fraction of Swift’s over $80 million real estate portfolio. Swift shared a few snaps from the low-key party online, showing the kitchen as well as some her choices in art for the home. The area had a vintage feel to it, with a built-in cabinet decorated with lots of small knick knacks — including a large “T” sign — as well as several bottles of various alcohols. Jonas, for his part, posted a photo of he and brother Nick Jonas putting Swift’s bar to good use.
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. 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." 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. 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.
Here, Taylor refers to Rebekah and her life as ‘the last great American dynasty’ and ponders us to wonder what could have been if Rebekah never came to Holiday House. The town saw her as a mad woman, but Taylor suggests that Rebekah didn’t care, she was simply having a ‘marvellous time ruinin’ everything’ in the eyes of the towns people, when she was simply living her life to the fullest. Her last Fourth of July party there was in 2016, the year of the Kimye feud and Swift’s ensuing cancellation. (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. Swift has said that her biggest mistake in creating her public image was not being forthcoming enough about how carefully crafted it was. She brought in hordes of celebrities for her famous — and perfectly Instagrammed — Fourth of July parties.
George Grant Snowden and his brother, James Hastings Snowden, explored for oil first in Pennsylvania and then in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. 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).
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