Saturday, April 27, 2024

The Hard-to-Believe Story Behind Holiday House

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Several other friends of the super star have also shared photos inside the home’s white kitchen. The eight-bedroom property, known as High Watch or Holiday House, was built on the highest point in Watch Hill and boasts over 700 feet of private beachfront. However, while at the opulent bash, her A-list friends (Gigi Hadid, Joe Jonas, Martha Hunt and others) have often shared sneak peeks of the property in their pictures.

Sneak a peek into Taylor Swift's $17M Rhode Island Holiday House, a hotspot for Gatsby-style parties

The figure of Rebekah Harkness, seen occasionally pacing the rocks adjacent to her home, became more fiction than the truth. She was nearly lost in the annals of time, slowly withering away, until ‘The Last American Dynasty’ revived her and the house. Harkness became a recluse in her later years, even dying a neighbour’s cat lime green after an altercation. "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. 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.

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The threesome, who donned matching red-white-and-blue onesies, were all smiles as they lounged against the white rod iron railing.

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

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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. 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. However, the pricey pad is just one fraction of Swift’s over $80 million real estate portfolio. Jonas, for his part, posted a photo of he and brother Nick Jonas putting Swift’s bar to good use.

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She succeeded her high-society muse, Rebekah Harkness, as the Rhode Island home's next famous owner. Even though she never actually met the old heiress, Taylor was avidly influenced by Harkness, for whom she wrote the Folklore song, The Last Great American Dynasty. Sneak peeks of her private beachfront and her white kitchen were also seen in the snaps she shared. 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.

Part of the home’s new addition, the main bathroom features an antique-style black claw-foot tub paired with black hexagonal tile flooring. Topped with vintage paintings and thrifted baskets, metal lockers —adorned with eucalyptus wreaths during the holidays—are an ideal spot to tuck away coats, boots, and mittens. The custom red barn-style Dutch door and antique Kazak rug brighten up the space, while the antique-looking brick flooring gives a nod to the reclaimed brick in the living room. The "Holiday House" that inspired the song was reportedly bought by the Grammy-winning singer in 2013 for $17.75 million in cash, per Page Six.

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. 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. Rather than lavish paintings, Swift opted for black-and-white photos of her friends and family — which seemingly line one of her hallway walls. 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.

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. 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 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.

How expensive is Taylor's Rhode Island home?

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In the same year, the "1989" star's then-boyfriend Calvin Harris posted his first Instagram photo of Taylor while she was cooking BBQ on the patio at her Rhode Island house. Some photos from Swift and her friends through the years gave the singer's followers a glimpse into her luxurious property. The full story of Holiday House is featured in season 3 of House Beautiful's haunted house podcast, Dark House.

Since Taylor Swift tends to keep her personal life fairly private these days, details about the house have been hard to come by. What she failed to mention at the time though, is how much she related to the woman who famously owned the house before her. 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.

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). 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.

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. Harkness was married to William Hale Harkness, whose family founded the Standard Oil Company. 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. 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 renowned singer-songwriter also talked about the couple's wedding and the home they picked and called the "Holiday House," where they hosted parties. 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. 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.

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