Post Time: Palm Beach County’s area codes come and go; 305, 407, 561

Readers: Remember 407?

Twenty years ago today, Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast finished a stretch of changes that created a boon for people who make business cards.

The Palm Beach Post’s archives contain a trove of old telephone books dating all the way back to the 1920s, when both the area, and the telephone, still were young. Back then, there were no area codes. Telephone numbers might be as few as two digits. After all, in 1920, Palm Beach County had all of 18,654 people. And for many, telephones were a luxury.

When three-digit area codes were established in 1947, Florida had one: 305.

Six years later, 813 was split off for the Gulf area. And in 1965, 904 was created for North Florida.

But the 1980s brought the advent of FAX machines and pagers and eventually cell phones, and soon the phone company ran out of numbers.

Palm Beach County’s first telephone area code had stood for 41 years; its second one lasted eight years; and its third one was shared with the Treasure Coast for only five years.

On April 16, 1988, 407 was established from Boca Raton to Orlando. On May 13, 1996, Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast split off 407 for a new area code: 561.

In August 2000, the state proposed an “overlay” area code that would share the region with 561 and would require everyone to dial 10 digits, even for local calls. Instead, in 2001 the Treasure Coast got its own area code, 772. Two years earlier, in November 1999, the Space Coast had been split off from 407, and been given what might be the most clever area code in America: 321. Think countdowns.

At the time 561 was created, authorities predicted it would run out of numbers in fewer than six years. Apparently, it didn’t.

Things are bit messier to the south. Both Broward (954) and Miami-Dade (305) counties each got an “overlay,” a second area code for any new service: 754 in Broward and 786 in Miami-Dade.

In just seven years, between May 1995 and March 2002, the state had added a whopping 13 area codes, bringing the total to 17. An 18th, 689, an overlay for the Orlando area, has been approved but not yet assigned.