Stephen Kranz’s house: the place where Paula Broadwell has taken refuge from the world’s media

When Paula Broadwell, the biographer mistress of David Petraeus, was discovered to be hiding out at her brother Stephen Kranz’s handsome Washington D.C. townhouse, many would have thought that as far as bolt holes go she did just fine.

After figuratively going to ground following the revelation of her affair with CIA chief David Petraeus and his resignation, Paula Broadwell was photographed earlier in the week with glass of wine in hand preparing an evening meal in the grand kitchen of the $2.3 million home.

Since then, Paula Broadwell has evaded the massed ranks of the media who have camped outside the Mount Pleasant home, but with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms, cabin fever might not set in for the 40-year-old West Point graduate any time soon.

It was Paula Broadwell who was allegedly responsible for setting off the chain of events which led to her being hounded by the world’s press to the front door of her brother Stephen Kranz’s home at 1841 Park Road.

Paula Broadwell is believed to have sent threatening emails to Tampa socialite, Jill Kelley, who she perceived as a rival for the affections of retired four star general David Petraeus.

Jill Kelley in turn reported these messages to a friendly FBI agent who set off an investigation which uncovered evidence of the affair and “inappropriate” exchanges between Kelley and General John Allen, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

In fact the bombshell of the illicit affair that rocked the nation broke when Paula Broadwell and her husband Scott were enjoying a two-day break at the Middleton Inn in Little Washington, Virginia.

The beautiful and stately home became the centre of the world’s news when Paula Broadwell was seen looking strained and tense while holding a glass of wine in her hand on Tuesday evening.

Reporters were first alerted to her possible presence in Washington D.C. when her drivers licence was found by a jogger in nearby Rock Creek Park.

Indeed, 1841 Park Road is part of local history for the civil rights movement.

In 1950, two years after the U.S. Supereme Court ruled that neighborhood covenants restricting home ownership on the basis of race, the house was purchased by a Dr. Robert Deane, who was black.

The all-white residents of Mount Pleasant tried to sue to block the sale, but courts threw their complaints out and the sale went through.

Dr. Robert Deane lived in the property until his death in 2001.