“I saw three police cars—one unmarked—two looked like Westerly town police officers, and there was a medical examiner arriving behind me,” Westerly resident Taylor Day shared with NBC10. “It caught my attention, and it was something very unusual for Westerly.”
“It was probably a couple of football fields away from Taylor Swift’s house and the Ocean House,” Day added. “I would never expect something like that—especially not in Watch Hill.”
Taylor, who purchased the Rhode Island mansion in 2013, has often used the beachfront property as a private retreat away from public attention. Along with hosting her well-known Fourth of July gatherings—which have included guests like Selena Gomez, HAIM, Karlie Kloss, Blake Lively, Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, Ed Sheeran, Lena Dunham, and others over the years—it has also served as an inspiration for her music.
Her song “the last great american dynasty” from her 2020 album Folklore focuses on the house’s history, especially socialite Rebekah Harkness, who lived in the home, then called “Holiday House,” during the mid-20th century and with whom Taylor felt a connection.
“50 years is a long time / Holiday House sat quietly on that beach,” she sings in the song. “Free of women with madness, their men and bad habits / And then it was bought by me.”
Although the track wasn’t released until 2020, Taylor shared in the Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary that she had been deeply inspired by the story of the house and its well-known former owner, stating, “I had been wanting to write a song about Rebekah Harkness since 2013.”
