813 Day in Tampa: Do you know the history of the 813 area code?

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Updated  August 14, 2024 11:10am EDT
FOX 13 News
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‘813 Day:’ The history of the 813 area code

FOX 13’s Lloyd Sowers examines the history of the 813 area code, which was Florida’s second area code and has now existed for more than 70 years.

TAMPA, Fla. - Remember when telephones were just to talk on? Telephones became so popular in the late 1940s that we were grouped into area codes.

READ: 813 Day in Tampa: How to celebrate the city holiday

The area code in Florida was 305 for all of us, from the Panhandle to the Keys. Then, in 1953, the 813 area code was carved out on Florida's West Coast, including Tampa. Now, with some using area codes as names, Tampa has become "The 813."

This map shows how much territory the 813 area code covered from 1953-65, when there were only two area codes for the entire state.

In 1965, 305 and 813 were joined by 904 in north Florida. The state was growing in population and the number of telephones. But all of those phones were connected to miles and miles of wires.

In 1965, 904 was added as Florida's third area code, shrinking 813's territory to the north.

Phone cables were even stretched across oceans, but they couldn't be stretched to the Moon. Yet we could listen to the astronauts when they first walked on the Lunar surface. It helped lead to phones without wires.

Then came faxes, modems and pagers, and everyone seemed to have them. More area codes were added in Florida. The state with two area codes in 1953 now has 22 area codes.

Today, Florida has 22 area codes. The remaining area covered by 813 even has a second area code: 656.

With so many devices with numbers, it's ironic that we have stopped remembering numbers. They could be stored in the devices' memories. We may be in the final generation of those who remember their childhood home phone number etched in their brains.

"It has become a part of history, like the paper map," says Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center.

So, calling Tampa and Hillsborough "The 813" and holding 813 Day on August 13th (8/13) is a kind of throwback to when we knew phone numbers, but we had no idea of what phones would become in our lives. Who knows how many more area codes and phone numbers will come? And will we remember any of them?

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