339 Area Code – Lynn, Massachusetts: Location, Time Zone & History

Unlike most area codes, 339 was never carved out of a predecessor's territory through a geographic split; it was overlaid directly onto the existing 781 numbering plan area, an all-services overlay approved by Massachusetts regulators in April 2000 and activated for new numbers on May 2, 2001. Area code 781 itself had been split from 617 in September 1997 to relieve pressure on Boston's original numbering plan, covering the city's inner suburbs along the Route 128 corridor and the South Shore. Because 339 and 781 share the same territory, callers throughout the region, including Waltham, Lynn, Woburn, Weymouth, Dedham and Lexington, have dialed all ten digits, area code included, since the overlay took effect.

That territory has long been associated with technology. Route 128, the highway running through it, was dubbed "America's Technology Highway" during the minicomputer boom of the 1960s through 1980s and was briefly signed with that name in 1982. Raytheon, the defense contractor, kept its headquarters within the same area, first in Waltham and later Lexington, for decades before relocating outside Massachusetts in 2022. The area's economy today spans information technology, aerospace and defense, biotechnology and life sciences, and higher education and research.

Lexington itself carries an older historical distinction: it was the site of the opening battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought on April 19, 1775.