Music superstar Taylor Swift is making scores of news with the release of her latest album which includes a song about the family—mostly the eccentric socialite heiress—that owned the mansion she bought in 2013 for $17 million in Watch Hill, RI.
For a short time, just the seven years they were married, Mr. and Mrs. William Hale Harkness lived in what they called the “Holiday House.” William died in 1954 from a heart attack. His widow, Rebekah, renovated the 40-room house to include eight kitchens and 21 bathrooms. She died in 1982. For tabloid details about the Harkness heiress, click onto this Daily Mail article: https://mol.im/a/8557467
Why Swift would desire the property that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean is a question only she could answer, though the spectacular views for sure were an enticement. Doubtful at the time she contemplated it as inspiration for a song, “The Last American Dynasty.”
The Harkness family is associated with John D. Rockefeller, Henry Flagler and the origins of Standard Oil which made them the wealthiest of Americans.
Holiday House is 25 miles northeast of Waterford, CT, outside New London, where the neoclassical mansion Eolia stands at the cliffside edge of the 230 acre Harkness Memorial State Park. Eolia was one of seven homes owned by Edward and Mary Stillman Harkness. Edward is the son of Stephen Harkness, a silent investment partner of Rockefeller’s oil empire. Harkness was the second largest stockholder in Standard Oil, just ahead of his stepbrother Flagler.
Harkness invested in Rockefeller’s enterprise on the condition Flagler would be made a partner. Aside from the fortune Flagler made as the “brains” of Standard Oil, he later gilded his coffers by building a railroad network into Florida all the way to Key West and developing resort hotels in the Sunshine State including the Breakers in Palm Beach. He is considered the “father” of Miami.
Like Holiday House, Eolia is majestic. It has 42 rooms, 20 bedrooms, 11 fireplaces and 14 bathrooms.
Upon his mother’s death Edward became the sole heir to his father’s estate. In 1918 Forbes magazine ranked Edward as the sixth richest man in the United States.
Edward’s wife was no slouch when it came to wealth, as well. Her maternal grandfather owned much of what we now call Mystic Seaport.
Rebekah was unconventional, even as she supported charities and the arts. Edward and Mary, on the other hand, enjoyed a more staid reputation. Childless, they endowed many institutions, chief among them the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. Specifically, as he was fascinated with Egyptian artifacts, Edward funded the Met’s purchase of George Herbert’s collection of Egyptian treasures which included relics from the tomb of King Tut.
Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, had accompanied archeologist Howard Carter on his famous excavation discovery. Herbert needed to sell his collection to pay for renovations of Highclere Castle, the setting for the PBS television series “Downton Abbey.”
Edward also paid for residential colleges and buildings at Yale, Harvard and other universities.
Mary’s interests led her to start on grounds adjacent to Eolia a retreat for children afflicted with polio. Now called Camp Harkness it currently is used by special needs children.
Almost none of the gifts the Harknesses made (more than $2 billion in today’s dollars) bears their name.
Founded in 1918 by his mother and later administered by Edward and Mary, the Harkness family established the Commonwealth Fund, one of the longest running, continuous foundations to improve public welfare.
My personal connection to the Harkness family name came from my mother’s frequent stays at Harkness Pavilion, a private wing of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. It was named for Stephen Harkness, a gift from his wife and son.
Five years ago Gilda and I visited Eolia on one of our day trips. It was a glorious late summer day, an excursion the coronavirus and an oppressive heat wave have made all but impossible to reproduce. Taylor Swift may make Rebekah Harkness’ sad, troubled life familiar to her fans, but I will always recall the Harkness name with fondness for the care my mother received in its namesake pavilion.
