For fans of Taylor Swift, a visit to Rhode Island offers a unique opportunity to connect with the singer's life and experiences. From her stunning mansion in Watch Hill to her favorite local spots, there's plenty to explore.
Taylor Swift's Rhode Island House: Location, Lore, and Lookie-Loos
The 11,000-square-foot mansion Swift bought for $17.75 million in 2013 is situated at 16 Bluff Ave. in the coastal community of Watch Hill in Westerly, Rhode Island. Set on a rocky bluff overlooking the ocean, the Colonial-style home-known as High Watch or Holiday House-is the largest residence in the affluent neighborhood, and the only one with security staff milling around the front gate and barriers erected to prevent crazed Swifties from trespassing. The property has a private beach and a pool.
Inside, there are eight bedrooms, eight fireplaces, and 10 bathrooms. A $1.7-million renovation is reportedly underway to add yet another bedroom and more bathrooms and to make improvements in the kitchen. The home's initial construction was finished in 1930, but the place's most notable resident before Swift came along was Rebekah Harkness, who married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness in 1947. After he died 7 years later, Rebekah inherited the fortune, becoming known for being a benefactor of dance companies, a squanderer of cash, and an alienator of neighbors.
As Swift sings in "The Last Great American Dynasty," Harkness "filled the pool with champagne and swam with the big names / And blew through the money on the boys and the ballet / And losing on card game bets with Dalí." That's all more or less true. Ditto for the song's claim that the heiress dyed a neighbor's pet green during a feud, though the unfortunate animal was a cat, not, as Swift relates, a dog. Perhaps, as a proud self-described "cat lady," the pop star couldn't bring herself to identify with someone who would mistreat a feline.
In keeping with the Harkness tradition of throwing big parties on the property, Swift has hosted several July Fourth bashes here, with famous guests including Selena Gomez, the Haim sisters, and Blake Lively. On other occasions, boyfriend Travis Kelce has been spotted on the premises. Though not visible from the street due to strategically placed fencing and landscaping, you can lay eyes on Holiday House from a discreet distance.
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The easiest option is to go to the grounds of the Watch Hill Lighthouse, a three-story granite tower set at the southernmost point of Rhode Island, where a beacon first began guiding ships through the juncture of Block Island Sound and Fishers Island Sound in the 1740s. With the lighthouse behind you and the ocean to your right, Swift's place is that gigantic house at the highest point on the peninsula.
Watch Hill Lighthouse
Americana Elegance at Ocean House
You can see Swift's home from the beach below the next-door Ocean House hotel, too. If Rebekah Harkness's spending habits strike you as thrifty, you might consider booking a room at the luxe retreat, where summer nightly rates usually crack four figures, and you could wind up having Swift as a neighbor during your stay. Dating to 1868, the clifftop, canary-yellow hotel (1 Bluff Ave.) is at least worth a pop-in for a drink or a seafood lunch on the veranda, even if you're not splurging for one of the 49 guest rooms or 20 opulent, ocean-facing suites.
And though a strong Taylor Swift connection doesn't come to mind, you really should pass through the lobby and continue to the lower level to check out the hotel's Bemelmans Gallery, billed as the "largest permanent, private collection of work by [Ludwig] Bemelmans on public display." Whether or not you know the artist's name or have seen his murals in the bar of Manhattan's exclusive The Carlyle hotel, you're probably familiar with his illustrations for the Madeline picture books. That beloved French schoolgirl is amply represented in Ocean House's gallery, along with many other murals, paintings, and drawings in Bemelmans's charming style.
Wandering Watch Hill: Where Taylor Swift Dines (and Snacks)
Continuing down toward the water on the western side of the Watch Hill peninsula, you'll come to a covefront business district with parking, access to recreational areas, an old-timey carousel, and several shops and restaurants with a Swiftian connection. In particular, the singer has been known to get ice cream at St. Clair Annex (141 Bay St.) and to peruse sweets amid the pink-gingham confines of the Candy Box (14 Fort Rd.).
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According to an ancient video Q&A with fans, Swift's favorite ice cream flavors are cookie dough, vanilla sprinkled with M&Ms, and anything with "that shell stuff you pour on top and it hardens." She probably means a dip cone, don't you think? If so, that and her other faves, along with several more options, are dispensed from St. Clair's walk-up counter.
For a more substantial meal, any Taylor pilgrimage must include a stop at Olympia Tea Room (74 Bay St.), a more than 100-year-old institution serving comfort food (clam chowder, baked haddock, bolognese pappardelle) and stiff cocktails. Swift has dined here with a bunch of famous people, such as Loki actor Tom Hiddleston, back when the pair briefly dated. Hiddleston and Swift reportedly shared Olympia Tea Room's Avondale swan dessert, a delectable confection resembling the graceful bird but made with puff pastry, vanilla gelato, espresso fudge, and whipped cream feathers.
Another frequently cited Swift haunt in the area is a breakfast restaurant called the Cooked Goose (92 Watch Hill Rd.). However, that business remains closed following a fire that caused extensive damage. Swift and fellow chanteuse Lorde once took a private cooking lesson from the kitchen's award-winning chef, Jeanie Roland. They made tuna tartare tacos.
Beaches Where Taylor Swift Has Been Spotted
Sightings of Swift have been logged at several beaches in the area-with reports of her paddleboarding with Ed Sheeran here, canoodling with Hiddleston there-but one of the nicest is East Beach, the stretch of sand below the singer's mansion. With the Watch Hill Lighthouse standing sentry, the largely undeveloped shoreline reaches past the Ocean House hotel, showing off expansive views of the waves from soft sands. There's free public access from Bluff Avenue, but parking is very limited in this neighborhood. That's one reason why the spot often feels uncrowded.
On the western side of Watch Hill, starting from the business district where the St. Clair Annex et al. are situated, the Napatree Point Conservation Area extends into the bay for more than a mile. The sandy spit is a popular site for boating, beachgoing, strolling amid grassy dunes, watching for rare bird species, and watching for even rarer global superstars paddleboarding by.
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Beyond Watch Hill but still in the town of Westerly, the half-mile-long Misquamicut State Beach to the east supplies a livelier atmosphere and more facilities, including a playground, concessions, and a big bathhouse with changing rooms and outdoor showers. Tabloid photographers have supposedly captured images of Swift here, but the pics don't much look like Misquamicut and, given that it's Rhode Island's most-visited beach, wouldn't any celeb stay away for fear of getting mobbed by fans?
Don't Forget About Downtown Westerly
Though Watch Hill is the epicenter of Swift action in Rhode Island, it's worth heading a few miles inland to experience downtown Westerly, and not only to see where Swift stocks up on groceries (for the record, that would be McQuade's Marketplace at 106 Main St.). Music fans will want to focus their attention on the United Theatre (5 Canal St.), a onetime vaudeville house turned vibrant arts center set to launch its "Nashville North" concert series in November.
As part of a partnership with the Tennessee capital's legendary Bluebird Cafe music venue, Nashville singer-songwriters will regularly appear in Westerly to perform intimate, Bluebird-style sets onstage at the United. The idea for the initiative came from an "instrumental" supporter of the theater, entrepreneur Scott Swift, who also happens to be the father of you-know-who. Even if there's no Nashville North concert scheduled for when you're in Westerly, you should check out what's on at the United, a venue that hosts an impressive array of live music, comedy, dance, visual art, and film.
Taylor Swift and Celebrity Diplomacy
As the nations of the European Union readied themselves for parliamentary elections, Margaritis Schinas, Vice President of the European Commission, did something that would have been unimaginable to the striped-pants diplomats of a generation ago. He publicly appealed to an American. Not to the President, nor to the Secretary of State, but to Taylor Swift. Schinas expressed his hope that the pop superstar, then on the European leg of a world tour of staggering proportions, might use her considerable platform to nudge young Europeans toward the ballot box.
The incident, brief as it was, illustrated a significant change in international affairs: the rise of celebrities as a powerful and often independent political force. Their influence is something that traditional institutions of the state both seek to gain and struggle to control fully. This phenomenon, which scholars have christened ‘celebrity diplomacy’, has journeyed from the quirky periphery of global politics to its very centre. It is a complex entanglement of media, culture, and statecraft that erodes the old conviction that diplomacy is the exclusive province of governments and their accredited emissaries.
Key Figures in Celebrity Diplomacy
| Figure | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Joseph Nye | Introduced the concept of ‘soft power,’ which underlies celebrity diplomacy. |
| Andrew F. Cooper | Coined the term ‘celebrity diplomacy’ and highlighted celebrities as an ‘alternative form of agency’ in world politics. |
| Bono | Successfully placed third-world debt relief on the G8 agenda, exemplifying the power of celebrity diplomacy. |
| Audrey Hepburn | Served as a UNICEF ambassador, lending her fame to raise funds and generate positive press for the organization. |
| Angelina Jolie | As a Special Envoy for the UN Refugee Agency, she has tackled complex security matters and advocated against sexual violence as a weapon of war. |
| BTS | The global phenomenon K-pop has been harnessed as an explicit tool of foreign policy. |
The heroic model of a single Bono or Jolie is being supplemented by the distributed power of ‘fan armies’, like the BTS fans who famously matched the band’s million-dollar donation to Black Lives Matter. Influence is becoming decentralised.
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