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.
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Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill mansion overlooks the Rhode Island coastline.Christopher Gavin/Globe Staff
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. But Roland 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.”
The gates were closed at Taylor Swift’s home in Watch Hill, R.I. on Wednesday, July 15, 2026.Christopher Gavin/Globe Staff
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 by the restaurant about four years ago, around the same time police in New York City arrested a man for trespassing and stalking after he allegedly entered two Tribeca residences connected to the musician, Nathan said.
“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 was on 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 and Scott, 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. Fans regularly 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.’”
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.