This street runs east to west, from Maršala Tita to the crossing with Halida Kajtaza and Put Života. At the crossing with Tešanjska, one part veers south and then back to the east, where it ends as a cul de sac.

Up until the arrival of the Ottomans there was a plot of plowland here called Sušica, which took its name from a stream that comes out at Poljine, runs beneath Halida Kajtaza and spills into the Miljacka near the National Museum. During the Ottoman period a road called Sušica pretty much followed the present-day layout.

In 1921 the road was named after Silvije Strahimir Kranjčević (1865–1908), a Croatian poet who spent part of his life in Sarajevo. The rest of the street, which runs to Pofalići, was laid out that same year.

Before the fall of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a step-street that joins Kranjčevićeva and Kalemova was laid out and called: Stepenište, Mala Kalemova, Kranjčevića Stepenište and, then, Halida Nazečića, its current name.

When the train station opened in 1953, Kranjčevićeva was shortened to its current length.