Bath, New York, United States

🇺🇸 Bath is a town in Steuben County, New York, United States, with an area of 96.3 square miles (249 km²). Its largest settlement is the Village of Bath, which has an area of 2.9 sq mi (7.5 km²). The Village is the county seat of Steuben County. The Town is located in the central part of the county, north-west of Elmira. The town and village are either named after the city of Bath in England or after Lady Bath, daughter of a landowner.

History The town was founded in 1793 and was part of a land investment by wealthy Briton William Pulteney, and named after Bath, Somerset in England, where he owned extensive estates. It was created along with Steuben County in 1796 and became a mother town of the county, eventually yielding land to seven later towns. The Lackawanna Railroad opened its mainline through Bath, and opened a station, in 1882.

In addition to the Bath VA Medical Center, the James H. Bolton House, Campbell-Rumsey House, Cobblestone House, Davenport Library, Erie Freighthouse Historic District, The First Baptist Society of Bath, Gansevoort/East Steuben Streets Historic District, George W. Hallock House, Haverling Farm House, Liberty Street Historic District, McMaster House, Henry C. Myrtle House, Potter-Van Camp House, Martin A. Quick House, Reuben Robie House, Sedgwick House, William Shepherd House, United States Post Office, and M. J. Ward Feed Mill Complex are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Carl Carmer's novel "Genesee Fever", treating of the first white settlements in the region, is set largely in Bath. Bath was the site of the land office disposing of 1.2 million acres.

Geography The United States Census Bureau lists the town's total area as 96.3 square miles (249.4 km²), of which 96.0 square miles (248.6 km²) is land and 0.3 square mile (0.8 km²)(0.32%) is water.

Interstate 86 (Southern Tier Expressway) passes through the town. New York State Route 54 and New York State Route 415 intersect in Bath village. New York State Route 53 has its southern terminus at NY-415 in the community of Kanona. New York State Route 226 passes through Savona.

The Cohocton River flows through the town past the hamlet of Kanona and the villages of Bath and Savona.

Communities and Locations in the Town of Bath • Bath – The Village of Bath. • Buck Settlement – A hamlet in the south-western part of the town. • Coss Corners – A location south of Unionville on County Road 10. • Dudley Settlement – A hamlet south of Bath village, lying between Unionville and East Union. • East Union – A hamlet south of Bath village. • Haverling Heights – A community bordering the northern side of Bath village. • Kanona – A hamlet north-west of Bath village by Interstate 86. The village is centered on the intersection of NY-53, NY-415 and County Road 14. • Knight Settlement – A location in the north-western part of the town on County Road 15. • Savona – The Village of Savona. • Sonora – A hamlet by the eastern town line. • Thomas Corners – A location in the south-western part of the town. • Unionville – A hamlet south of Bath village on County Road 10.

The Village of Bath Bath is a village in Steuben County, New York, United States. Bath is the county seat of Steuben County. The community was named either for the English city of Bath, Somerset, or for Lady Laura Pulteney, 1st Countess of Bath and daughter of Sir William Pulteney, one of the original landowners.

The Village of Bath is in the Town of Bath and is north-west of Elmira and is west of Tyrone. Bath is the location of the Bath VA Medical Center (former old soldiers' home), Bath National Cemetery, and the Steuben County Fair, the oldest continuous fair in the United States.

The Conhocton River flows through Bath, and Lake Salubria is a small artificial lake south-east of the village.

Railways Bath is served by the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad which operates over former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) mainline trackage between a connection with Norfolk Southern in Painted Post, and the company's terminus in Cohocton. (Trackage to Wayland remains in place but is no longer used. Service on the original B&H between Bath and Hammondsport has also been discontinued.)

The Erie Railroad's Rochester Division once passed through Bath. The 1960 merger of the Erie and DL&W led to the creation of Erie-Lackawanna which was followed by the elimination of redundant trackage. The Erie line through Bath was abandoned, as was much of the DL&W west of Wayland. The result was a drastic reduction of railroad activity in Bath since traffic could be routed over the parallel ex-Erie mainline through the Canisteo River Valley.

Erie-Lackawanna was absorbed into the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) in 1976. In 1999, Conrail lines in the region were acquired by Norfolk Southern. Since then, the Bath & Hammondsport has become a subsidiary of the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville which currently operates the line, though not over any of its original route. Trains operate through Bath five days per week.

Economy It is the site of Bath VA Medical Center, established in 1877 and dedicated in 1879 as New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home. It is adjacent to the Bath National Cemetery.

Arts and culture Bath has an annual dairy festival in June to celebrate the strong dairy-based economy of the area.