Area Code

213 used to be the area code for all of LA County. All states with multiple area codes were given 1 as the middle number, so that's that. The 2 and the 3 are specific to identifying Los Angeles. In fact, originally 213 covered all of Southern California. It was one of three area codes created for california in 1947. Then everything South and East of LA was cut out to form 714 in 1951, and then the northern counties were cut in 1957.

213 covered all of LA county until the 818 was created in '84 for the valley, and the 310 in '91 for the South Bay. Apparently the 310 only could be made because we had to start dialing 1 before making a long distance call.

The important bit is that when this house was built in the 50s, the phone # would have been 213-834-xxxx. Possibly it was 833 or some such before the 4 line was added. In fact, when we bought this house in 1990 it still would have been 213, not until the next year did we become 310.

Another note about the original numbers. They were doled out by population, the denser the population the lower the number you got. New York 212, Los Angeles 213. Because everyone had rotary phones, the idea was to give more people fewer dial pulls, and vice versa.

Having lived in LA and San Francisco, I've lived in two of the original California Area codes, which I think is kind of neat. The other original left is Sacramento.