In 1913, the New York State Legislature designated most of modern NY 74 as Route 22-b, an unsigned legislative route. It ran for from Route 22 (now US 9) in Schroon to the western edge of the then-village of Ticonderoga. On March 1, 1921, Route 22-b became part of Route 48, a new route created as part of a partial renumbering of New York's legislative route system. In 1924, when state highways were first publicly signed with route numbers, the highway from Schroon to Ticonderoga remained unnumbered. During the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the segment of modern NY 74 between US 9 in Schroon and NY 22 in Ticonderoga was designated as part of NY 73, a route extending from NY 28N in Tahawus to Ticonderoga. NY 73 followed the Blue Ridge Road from Tahawus to North Hudson and had an overlap with US 9 from North Hudson to Schroon.