Families living in the hamlet of Cold Spring were brought in through the Cornplanter Grant in the early 1800s, and by 1809, the village located along future–NY 280 exceeded 500 people in log houses. The alignment of future NY 280 appears in the 1869 Cattaraugus County Atlas on its alignment from Cold Spring to Quaker Bridge. At the time a dirt road, a total of 14 families lived along the road. Construction of the Seneca Trading Post, a general store, began in 1833, which was a hub of activity at the southern end of the road in Quaker Bridge, supplying stuff for tourists of the area and serving as the town's post office until 1964. The building was intentionally burned in 1965. NY 280 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York to a short roadway connecting NY 17, then an at-grade highway, to the now-submerged hamlets of Cold Spring and Quaker Bridge along the western bank of the Allegheny River. The designation ended in Quaker Bridge, a community situated on the eastern riverbank near the modern junction of NY 280 and Allegany State Park Route 3 in the town of Elko. NY 280 remained relatively unchanged up through the early 1960s.