Over the years, NY 7 has been realigned to follow different routings in and around the cities it serves. Prior to 1930, NY 7 began at Court Street in Binghamton and followed Chenango Street north into Fenton, where it turned east and continued through Port Crane to the Colesville hamlet of Sanitaria Springs. In the 1930 renumbering, NY 7 was extended south to Pennsylvania by way of Court Street, Tompkins Street, and Conklin Avenue. NY 7 was realigned slightly by 1947 to follow Robinson Street and Brandywine Avenue between Chenango and Tompkins streets. The Brandywine Highway, a four-lane arterial through Binghamton and Port Dickinson, opened to traffic as a realignment of NY 7. The portion of NY 7 between Port Dickinson and Sanitaria Springs was relocated onto a new limited-access highway between 1968 and 1973. The segment of Chenango Street between the Binghamton city line and current NY 7 in Port Dickinson (a distance of ) is now NY 990H, an unsigned reference route. The former pre I-88 routing of NY 7 between Port Crane and Sanitaria Springs is now NY 7B. Prior to becoming NY 7B in the 1990s, it was designated NY 990K, an unsigned reference route.