English: Centenary United Methodist Church, 3 West Washington Street at Liberty Street, Bath, New York, January 2023. Built in 1978 to replace an earlier structure lost to fire two years prior, the strikingly modern design of this church comprises a diamond-shaped footprint with steep gables rising at each of its four corners, peaking in a ridge shaped like a Greek cross and overhanging tall stained glass windows that are decorated with Modernist dalle-de-verre tracery. Contained within the structure as well are many items salvaged from the previous one, including the cornerstone (now accompanied by a companion reading "rebuilt 1977"), several original windows, and the bell, now displayed proudly on the front lawn (left). The $325,000 construction was funded mostly by a bequest from former church member Murray W. Walker. One of the oldest extant religious congregations in Bath, Centenary Methodist Church was founded in 1822, but its roots can be traced back even further, to the foundation of a Methodist Society in the village in about 1814 by traveling "circuit rider" preachers operating out of Elmira. After the formal foundation of the church, services were held in the county courthouse until the construction of a purpose-built meetinghouse in 1835, which served a steadily growing membership living in both Bath and nearby Hammondsport. Naturally, a larger building soon became necessary, and that came to fruition in 1866 with the replacement of the original wood-frame church with a much larger and more ornate brick Victorian Gothic structure. it was at this time that the church his name was changed to Centenary Methodist, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of Methodism in America. Further expansions to the complex occurred in 1903, 1921, and 1964 (the Shelgren & Whitman designed Education Building comprising the latter of the three) before the aforementioned 1976 fire.