 The first road along the corridor of MD 30 was a wagon road cut along an existing Indian trail in 1736 and 1737 to connect the Conewago Settlement, which later became Hanover, with Baltimore Town, which served as a much closer port for farmers and merchants in York County and Adams County, Pennsylvania, than Philadelphia. This road became known as the Conewago Road, Pack Horse Road, or the Wheelbarrow Road, the last due to the namesake implements being used to haul stones to widen the road by order of Maryland in 1793. The highway became a toll road with the 1805 incorporation of the Baltimore and Reisterstown Turnpike Company, which operated between the two towns and split into Westminster and Hanover branches in Reisterstown. The latter branch became known as the Hanover Turnpike or the Baltimore and Hanover Turnpike and had ceased to collect tolls by 1899.
