Known as Wilkens Avenue, the state highway runs 2.86 miles (4.60 km) from MD 166 in Catonsville east to U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Baltimore.

The state highway curves to the east after passing Valley Road, which provides access to Spring Grove Hospital Center, and meets I-695 (Baltimore Beltway) at a partial cloverleaf interchange.

[1][3] The state highway runs alongside Loudon Park National Cemetery as a four-lane undivided street before meeting its eastern terminus at US 1, which continues toward downtown Baltimore as Wilkens Avenue and heads south as Southwestern Boulevard.

[5] Extending Wilkens Avenue across the Patapsco River to Howard County via a bridge near a site called Orange Grove was proposed in the early 1890s but this never came to fruition.

[6] The Maryland Geological Survey granted Baltimore County state aid to pave in macadam its portion of Wilkens Avenue, starting from the contemporary city limit at Desoto Road, around 1907.

[17] MD 372 was expanded to a four-lane divided highway from its interchange with I-695 to east of Maiden Choice Lane in 1957 and from the Beltway to west of Valley Road in 1960.