The highway runs from its southern terminus at a T-intersection with Old Mill Road in a quiet residential neighborhood in the eastern Cleveland suburb of Gates Mills to its northern terminus at a signalized intersection with U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Willoughby that doubles as the eastern terminus of SR 640.

No portion of SR 174 is included within the National Highway System (NHS).

The NHS is a network of routes determined to be most important for the economy, mobility and defense of the country.

[5] SR 174 northern terminus and concurrency with US 20 has been unsigned since the early 1960s.

From there, SR 174 utilized Chagrin River Road heading north into Gates Mills, where it tied into its present-day southern terminus, and then followed the entirety of its current routing to its northern terminus in downtown Willoughby.