The current route served as part of two 19th-century turnpikes that connected the Cumberland Valley with Baltimore. The section south of Hanover became part of the Hanover branch of the Baltimore and Reisterstown Turnpike (later the Baltimore and Hanover Turnpike) in 1805 while the section north of Hanover became the southern portion of the Hanover and Carlisle Turnpike, which continued north to Carlisle, in 1812. PA 94 was designated in 1928 to run from MD 30 at the Maryland border southeast of Hanover to PA 34 in Mount Holly Springs along a paved road. The route was widened in Hanover in the 1940s and 1950s.