The stars aligned (or more accurately, assembled) at Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island home over the weekend. Swift, who finished the European leg of her Eras tour last week, was seen at her famous Watch Hill mansion—which inspired a song on her album Folklore—for the first time this summer. Alongside her was her boyfriend, NFL player Travis Kelce, who wrapped up the Kansas City Chiefs preseason games last week. It also happened to be the birthday of It Ends With Us star (and longtime friend of Swift) Blake Lively on Sunday, making a perfect storm for one of the “Cruel Summer” singer’s legendary celebrity-packed parties at the beachside home—a rarity in recent years. Lively and her husband, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, were spotted on the premises with their children in tow. Also seen in paparazzi snaps were Jason and Kylie Kelce; Gigi Hadid with boyfriend Bradley Cooper and his seven-year-old daughter; and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany Mahomes. The gathering appears to have been fairly lowkey, and none of the attendees have publicly posted photos of it (perhaps owing in part to the backlash that has followed Lively as of late?).
This stands in stark contrast to a decade ago, when Swift’s Fourth of July parties at the residence were iconic star-studded affairs, attended by (and appearing in the Instagram feeds of) Lively, Hadid, Lena Dunham, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, the Haim sisters, the Jonas brothers, Karlie Kloss, Tom Hiddleston in an “I ♥ T.S.” tank top, Cara Delevingne, and the rest of the pop star’s rotating circle of A-list friends, often pictured waving sparklers or synchronously jumping in red, white, and blue swimwear on the “Fortnight” singer’s 5.23-acre property. The tradition began in 2013, shortly after Swift bought the 12,000-square-foot home for $17.75 million, and ended after summer 2016—until a comparatively stripped-down reprise last year.
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Known as High Watch, Holiday House, or Harkness House, the white colonial-style dwelling was built in 1929 at the highest point of Watch Hill, overlooking the Block Island Sound. The property reportedly features 700 feet of beach frontage, eight bedrooms, ten bathrooms, lots of balconies, and a huge swimming pool.
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In 1948, oil heir William Harkness bought the home for $80,000—about $1.04 million, adjusted for inflation. After he died in 1954, the deed went to his wife, Rebekah Harkness—the protagonist of Swift’s 2020 song, “The Last Great American Dynasty.” Following her husband’s death, Rebekah reportedly put in eight kitchens and 21 bathrooms, and was known for throwing wild parties with her self-proclaimed “Bitch Pack” that drew criticism from the neighbors. “Flew in all her Bitch Pack friends from the city / Filled the pool with champagne and swam with the big names,” Swift croons, drawing direct parallels between herself and the late heiress. Of the gap between her and Harkness’s ownership of the property, she sings that “Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / And then it was bought by me.” After too long a break, we’re glad to see the legendary dwelling back in the spotlight.