Fun with Maps ISSUE 2025-187 – REWIND SPECIAL

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (November 10, 2025) – In today’s Rewind Special edition of Fun with Maps originally published 11/10/2020, we go back to the beginning of Area Codes.  (New FwM returns tomorrow)

Information please. . .

The first time a consumer directly placed a phone call with an area code was in 1951 on this day for a call between New Jersey and California.

Ma Bell started working on the idea of area codes in the early 1940s and started using them for operator assisted calls in 1947.

The North American Numbering Plan governs the use of area codes with 20 countries participating: US, Canada, and majority of the Caribbean nations.  Thankfully, a number of three-digit codes remain unused, so you can get that extra cell phone in the future…

How many area codes have you lived in?

Here is Mitchell’s map of the US from 1832 – before phones, but just 5 years prior to the first use of telegraph, which pre-dated the telephone for long distance near instant communication.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.