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Unlike the more accessible Watch Hill Beach across the way, East Beach isnt easy to find.
Your first obstacle is finding a parking space.
Head for the tall, thorny bushes and look for the narrow path through them.
Then walk down the slope, which gets craggier and craggier as you go.
Stop when you hit the sand.
Take off your shoes.
Youve found the best beach in New England.
I loved Taylor Swifts beach long before I loved Taylor Swift.
They can keep their seaweed and their seagulls and their kids splashing in the mellower surf.
The other side is a tiny, perfect piece of hard-won paradise.
Ironically, the public part of that beach is harder to find than the private parts.
To gain access, all you have to do is pony up $1,500 a night.
To the right, it belongs to Taylor Swift.
Its the high point in Watch Hill, both geographically and in price.
If you didnt already know a pop star lived there, you did when you saw that sign.
Maybe her transparency is what people didnt like.
The old-money families in Watch Hill have passed those homes down through generations.
Rebekah Harknessdidnt tuck herself away either.
(Bill Harkness was the heir to the Standard Oil fortune.)
And then, she brings it back to herself.
Taylor Swift and the State of Rhode Island have their own contentious history.
Next came the controversy over Swiftwanting to rebuild a seawallon her own property.
Then came theTaylor Swift tax.
Raimondo defended the proposal as potentially adding $12 million to the states economy, but then withdrew it.
Some of the most careful crafting has happened at High Watch.
She did exactly the kind of things that a modern-day Rebekah Harkness would have done.
It made the neighbors furious.
In my head, that dome looks exactly like the enormous27-foot-tall waterslideSwift had at her 2016 extravaganza.
There have been sightings of Taylor Swift all over Westerly, the town Watch Hill is a part of.
She and Lorde took a private cooking class at Ellas Fine Food & Drink.
Her parents are around so much that theyve practically become locals.
Her dad, Scott, happened to be at the restaurant that night.
He took photos with them.
They love the fans.
But Swift hasnt been spotted around much lately.
I was on East Beach the day of the party; there were paparazzi camped out all over.
That summer was also the last time she was photographed publicly in the state.
DeGeneres kind of shrugged.
Its a great state, Swift replied.
So maybe shes just gotten better at keeping a low profile.
I know that she loves her home, chef Roland tells me.
Ill cook for her kids one day.
Thats what I think.
