Taylor Swift's Holiday House (Watch Hill, RI)

Dark House

House Beautiful/Hearst

Religion & Spirituality, True Crime, Society & Culture

4.4 • 757 Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2023

⏱️ 93 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alyssa—a longtime “Swiftie”—leads us in a deep dive into the history of Holiday House, Taylor Swift’s oceanfront mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The co-hosts turn their attention to “the last great american dynasty,” a track off of Swift’s 2020 album Folklore, from which we learned that, just like us, she too enjoys digging into the history of her own home and learning about the people who lived there before her. In the song, Swift sings about the fascinating life of Rebekah Harkness—an American socialite who purchased Holiday House in 1948 with her second husband, Standard Oil heir William Harkness. Following her husband’s death, Harkness spent much of his fortune hosting lavish parties, buying her own ballet company, and pissing off her neighbors in the small resort community of Watch Hill along the way. After scouring through old newspapers and reading ‘Blue Blood,’ the out-of-print biography on Rebekah’s life, Alyssa breaks down the song line by line, revealing which of the wild anecdotes mentioned in the song are true (did Rebekah really dye her neighbor’s dog key lime green??), which aren’t, and what’s missing. She also shares her own theory about the lyrics, and why she thinks they may suggest that Holiday House is haunted by Rebekah’s ghost. Later, the co-hosts discuss Swift’s own struggles since buying the home in 2013, including her many (horrifying) encounters with stalkers trying to gain access to the property. CREDITS Alyssa Fiorentino - Co-host & Producer Hadley Mendelsohn - Co-host & Producer Jessy Caron - Producer & Audio Editor Jacob Stone - Sound Editor & Mixer To advertise on the show: https://www.advertisecast.com/DarkHouse or email us at [email protected]. RELATED LINKS Holiday House old postcard (PHOTO): bit.ly/3qG8dzS ‘Blue Blood’ by Craig Unger: https://amzn.to/3sjhuy9 ‘Watch Hill Through Time’ by Chaplin Bradford Barnes: https://amzn.to/45Bbb7B “Taylor Swift: A former resident of your house would like to meet you” The Day (ARTICLE): bit.ly/44sIhpm Watch Hill Historic District Nomination Form (PDF): bit.ly/3OKhWx4 Rebekah Harkness or Jane Lynch? (PHOTO): bit.ly/3KQigt5 Daimoku - Nam myoho renge kyo - 15 minutes (VIDEO): bit.ly/3OHG6bi ‘Blue Blood’ recap series by @JessiSwiftTok (TIKTOK): bit.ly/44iUsVt ‘Blue Blood’ analysis by @Kristina Parro (TIKTOK): bit.ly/3qLttnG Westerly RI including Taylor Swift's house...Ocean House Watch Hill DJI Phantom 4 Drone view in 4K (VIDEO): bit.ly/3OJjo2B Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.8	Her presence was that of a haunted, stiff, ghostly figure ominously stalking about.
0:36.6	Oh my God, I just got chills. That is so sad and eerie.
0:52.3	Welcome to Dark House. I'm Hadley Mendelssohn. And I'm Alyssa Furentino. We are your co-hosts.
0:58.4	If you're new here in each episode, we dig into the backstory of a house that's allegedly
1:03.3	haunted or notorious for some reason or another. We talk about who lived there, who died there,
1:08.3	and all of the events that led to its eventual infamy.
1:11.9	Today, we are talking about Holiday House, which is Taylor Swift's house in Watch Hill, Rhode Island.
1:18.1	If you're a Taylor Swift fan, then you already know that she wrote about this house in her song,
1:22.2	The Last Great American Dynasty, which came out on her 2020 album folklore.
1:26.6	Personally, I am so beyond excited for this episode because
1:32.0	I'm in OG Swiftie. I have loved her since 2006. If you know, you know. So this story felt
1:39.6	really close to home for me. And I went deep. I'm excited too, and I know how much you love her. And I'm sure
1:46.4	that only made you more motivated to uncover the history of the house, right? Yeah, 100%. So for anyone
1:52.2	who isn't familiar with the song, in the last grade American dynasty, Taylor tells the story of
1:56.8	Rebecca Harkness, who was an American heiress and patron of the arts and a former owner of
2:02.8	Holiday House. She owned the mansion from 1948 to 1973. The song is three minutes and 50 seconds
	...

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