Known as Mervell Dean Road, the state highway runs 2.26 miles (3.64 km) from the beginning of state maintenance near California north to MD 235 in Hollywood in St. Mary's County.

MD 944 begins at an arbitrary point 0.20 miles (0.32 km) south of Airport View Drive near California.

The state highway intersects Clarkes Landing Road and Joy Chapel Road, both of which are county highways that lead to waterfront subdivisions near the Patuxent River.

[3][4][5] The highway between Old Three Notch Road and modern MD 235 was originally constructed as part of MD 235's reconstruction as a military access highway to connect Washington and Naval Air Station Patuxent River in 1943 and 1944.

The bypassed highway was renamed as a northward extension of Mervell Dean Road—itself a section of old alignment of MD 235 bypassed when the original highway was reconstructed during World War II—and designated MD 944.