The current alignment of PA 611 is composed of several turnpikes that were built in the 1800s. What is now PA 611 was designated as part of U.S. Route 611 (US 611) in 1926, a U.S. highway that ran from Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia north to US 11 in Scranton. US 611 was designated along part of the Lackawanna Trail, which carried the PA 2 designation between 1924 and 1928. The northern terminus of the route in the Scranton area has shifted multiple times. US 611 experienced two realignments in the 1930s along the section of the route between Easton and Stroudsburg. In 1953, US 611 was moved to a new alignment between Portland and Delaware Water Gap that crossed the Delaware River twice and ran through a section of New Jersey, with the former alignment becoming US 611 Alternate (US 611 Alt.). The alignment of the route in New Jersey and across the Delaware Water Gap back into Pennsylvania became part of I-80; US 611 was shifted back to its Pennsylvania alignment in 1965, replacing US 611 Alt. US 611 was decommissioned in 1972 and the route was replaced with PA 611 between Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia and I-81E (now I-380) in Tobyhanna and PA 435 between I-81E in Gouldsboro and I-81E in Dunmore. PA 611 was moved to a freeway bypass of Doylestown in 1976. The route was extended south from Philadelphia City Hall to its present terminus at I-95 in the 1980s, replacing a section of PA 291.