Former Flatbush Clean Energy Museum Is Now $599K Luxury Home

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — A clean energy laboratory and museum dedicated to reusable energy has been refitted with a slew of modern conveniences its former owner once shunned and listed at $599,000.

The modern two-story house at 436 East 53rd St. listed on Realtor.com is unrecognizable as the former home of the Johnson Energy Clinic and Cooperative, where owner Jerome Johnson created solar-powered ovens and sponge-bathed in rain water he collected in the basement.

“This place is a museum,” Johnson, then 81, told the New York Times in 2011. “It was the city’s first three-dimensional research facility — not a bunch of talk — for conservation and retrofitting a house to harness solar energy.”

Johnson, who lived on $650 monthly Social Security payments and owed $21,000 in property taxes, lived for decades without gas, heat, or water utilities in attempt to manage costs of the home he bought for $8,000 in 1961, he told the Times.

Johnson opened the research center in 1979 and invited politicians and students to study his latest concepts, the Times reported.

For heat, Johnson relied on skylights fitted with plastic lids from stereo turntables and reflective wallpaper on the ceiling. He used rainwater that he collected from the roof and heated with tunafish cans, and cooked vegetarian meals on a hot plate, the Times reported.

He also developed a solar-powered umbrella that reflected heat onto a grill.

“You put that in the sun right now and you could cook a hamburger or hot dog with it in 45 minutes,” Johnson said. “I’m basically an inventor, but if you tell people that, you’re crazy.”

City records show that Johnson's wife and three children sold the home to developer Eli Friedman for $265,000 in 2017, after his death.

Listing photos on Realtor.com show Johnson's innovations have been cleared away from the East 53rd Street house, which now boasts central air conditioning in each of its 14 rooms, new stainless steal appliances and a washer and drier.

"This property what was once known as the Johnson Energy Clinic and Cooperative," the listing reads, "where many politicians visited to learn about and contribute to the scientific and environmental ideas can be your new home."

"Totally renovated," realtors added. "No expense spared."

Photos courtesy of Realtor.com