In 1946, Queen Anne's County requested funds for the 3-year post-war construction program to be applied to the two county-maintained portions of the Chestertown–Millington highway and for those stretches to be added to the state highway system. The first section, the portion of MD 544 from US 213 east to McGinnes Corner, was constructed as a bituminous stabilized gravel road in 1946. The second section was the shell macadam Fingerboard Road. In 1951, Queen Anne's County requested the state improve the road and assume maintenance due to damage from heavy truck traffic from a contractor that used the road to work on road projects elsewhere in the county. That stretch of highway was improved and brought into the state system later that year, thus completing MD 544 from US 213 to MD 313.