SR 164 was first defined under law to be built and paved by the state of Washington in 1913 as the McClellan Pass Highway, extending southeast from Tacoma along the Puyallup and White rivers to Chinook Pass and towards Naches along an existing county road from Auburn and Enumclaw built in the 1890s. The highway was renamed to the Naches Pass Highway in 1921 and became State Road 5 during a 1923 restructuring of the state highway system. After the formation of the United States Numbered Highways in 1926, US 410 was created and used the route of State Road 5 between Tacoma and Naches. State Road 5 became PSH 5, extended north to Renton and named the National Park Highway, was established during the creation of the Primary and secondary state highways in 1937. US 410 was moved south to a new Sumner-Buckley highway in the 1950s and was replaced by an extension of US 12 in 1967. During the 1964 highway renumbering, PSH 5 was split into several highways, including SR 167 between Renton and Enumclaw, ending at SR 410. In 1969, SR 167 was moved onto former SR 163 between Sumner and Auburn and SR 164 was established. SR 164 originally ended at SR 18 in Downtown Auburn, but was moved south when SR 18 was realigned onto a new freeway in 1987. No major revisions to the route of the highway have occurred since.