Taylor Swift has been busy during the pandemic, writing and recording a new album called "Folklore." Taylor wrote on Instagram, “Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore. Surprise”
One of the 16 new songs on the album was written about her house at Watch Hill in Westerly! The song is called "The Last Great American Dynasty,” and the lyrics tell the story of the home's previous owner Rebekah Harkness, a divorcee who married William Hale Harkness, the heir to Standard Oil, in 1947. Rebekah was also a composer, a sculptor, a patron of the arts and founder of a ballet company.
Swift wrote the lyrics "They picked out a home and called it 'Holiday House.' Their parties were tasteful, if a little loud" about Rebekah's home here in Rhode Island, that Taylor herself purchased in 2013.
Apparently Rebekah was quite the eccentric...once filling her swimming pool with Dom Pérignon. Supposedly she also stole her neighbor’s pet, and dyed it's fur green. She was married 4 times, and also had a close friendship with artist Salvador Dali.
Photo Credit: Getty Images / Neilson Barnard / Staff