Taylor Swift put the spotlight on Watch Hill. But the pop star isn’t center stage when she’s in Rhode Island.
WATCH HILL, R.I. – Even when she’s not around, she’s the loudest woman this town has ever seen.
Read more The best local book events, July 19-24
Taylor Swift’s purchase in 2013 of a 12,657 square-foot mansion on Bluff Avenue in Westerly’s Watch Hill has left an indelible mark on this tiny seaside village. Her annual celebrity-studded Fourth of July party is the stuff of tabloid legend. Enshrining the historic 1903 home in song on her “Folklore” album further fueled the landmark status of Swift’s vacation spot. Fans consider taking a peek at the property as part of their itinerary. Mere rumors the superstar might hold her nuptials in Watch Hill drew throngs of fans to the town — who ended up disappointed when the pop icon decided to wed at Madison Square Garden instead.
By 2017, an editorial in The Westerly Sun declared Swift “one of us,” writing she had taken to the beach town like a local. She had been seen shopping at McQuade’s Marketplace and Miceli’s Furniture, and grabbing ice cream with fellow musician Ed Sheeran at Mel’s Downtown Creamery in nearby Pawcatuck, Conn.
Yet as Swift’s celebrity crossed into the stratosphere, locals say her visibility around Watch Hill has faded. It’s been years since Swift has been seen out and about, locals say, with her presence in town only marked by the increased security at her house.
Swift once was, if not quite a regular fixture in town, at least a visible part of it. On occasion, she was even seen with other celebrities. In 2014, for example, she took a cooking class to make tuna tacos with another pop star, Lorde, at Ella’s Food & Drink, and later posted about the experience on social media.
“She wanted to learn how to entertain in her own home at the level of a professional, and she knocked that out of the ballpark,” Jeanie Roland, the chef-owner of Ella’s, recalled in an interview. “She can cook really well, so everything we did was just icing on the cake, so to speak, for her … it was at a point in her life where she could do something like that.”
Swift even asked Roland for her phone number, she said. ButRoland is not at liberty to discuss what’s happened since then.
“Somebody of that level has privacy, they have contracts that people sign. We’ve signed one of them to give her the freedom to enjoy her home as she wants,” Roland said. “I think it’s really important that somebody that comes to the community and invests in it the way that she has is given the chance to breathe in our beautiful ocean air and enjoy your property the way she should. And unfortunately, most times she doesn’t get a break doing that.”
Andrew Nathan, the chef at The Cooked Goose, said Swift used to stop by with friends, such as actress and singer Selena Gomez, “before things got out of control.”
Swift’s stopped coming bythe restaurant about four years ago, around the same timepolice in New York City arrested a man for trespassing and stalking after he allegedly entered two Tribeca residences connected to the musician, Nathansaid.
“That’s when she disappeared,” Nathan told the Globe.
Kathy Dunn, who summers in the home across the street from the singer’s mansion, said she has never seen Swift in the six years she’s been her neighbor.
“I’m always, you know, hoping to get a glimpse or see her, but [she’s] very private, and she doesn’t use the house that often, truthfully, I don’t think,” Dunn said. “I know she’s got like 10 other houses.” (Swift actually has fewer – the actual number varies, depending on the news reports. But who’s counting?)
At Bay Breeze Interiors, an antiques and decor store nearby, manager Bailey Richins said Swift stopped by the shop years ago.Unfortunately, it wason a day Richins was not working.
“I just want to see [her], just say I saw her,” Richins said. “You’re always looking.”
Swift’s parents, Andrea andScott, are known to be in the area more frequently.Both are founding donors of The United Theatre in Westerly. Scott Swift is “a wonderful, wonderful, philanthropic, unbelievable guy who’s made a lot of friends along those lines in Watch Hill,” Nathan said.
“Her parents are remarkable,” Nathan said. “When you see her parents … you see where she gets it, the poise.”
Even when the singer-songwriter isn’t present, she’s left her mark on the town. Fansregularly go to Ella’s and order the tuna tacos, Roland said, whether their idol is rumored to be around or not.
“Sometimes I’m not here, and they leave me notes, which is one thing that’s fantastic about the community that she has created,” Roland said. “It’s one of just love and giving.”
There’s a similar scene at The Cooked Goose: The staff keeps a bag of Swift-themed guitar pics to hand out. Swift’s father “makes sure we have a constant supply,” Nathan said.
“Every little girl that comes in says, ‘Was Taylor here? Was Taylor here?’” Nathan said. He replies:“‘No, she wasn’t here today, but she left these for you.’”
Read more The US plans to auction off sections of water around American Samoa in a push for deep-sea mining
Post Comment