When the route was originally assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, it extended southward into downtown Syracuse. NY 48 was truncated to Van Buren after I-690 was built over portions of the road in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The portion of former NY 48 that was not supplanted by I-690 was turned over to Onondaga County; however, the state reacquired the segment adjacent to the New York State Fairgrounds in 1980. Around 1931, a suffixed spur of NY 48, New York State Route 48A was designated as an alternate from Oswego to the town of Minetto. The route was deleted from the state highway system around 1940.