717 Area Code – Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Location, Time Zone & History

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, sits at the center of area code 717, one of the Commonwealth's original four area codes -- alongside 215, 412, and 814 -- established in AT&T's 1947 nationwide numbering plan. It originally covered the eastern half of the state outside the Delaware and Lehigh valleys, with a small adjustment in 1994 shifting some eastern Lancaster and western Chester County towns into 717 rather than the newly split 610. The bigger change came in 1998, when the northern portion centered on Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Williamsport broke off as area code 570.

Demand kept growing in the reduced South Central Pennsylvania footprint, so the Pennsylvania PUC assigned overlay code 223 in October 2016; ten-digit dialing became mandatory that August 2017, and 223 began real service with its first activations on September 26, 2017.

• Lancaster County anchors Pennsylvania Dutch Country, home to one of the largest Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities in the country.
• Hershey, in Dauphin County, gives the region its chocolate-manufacturing identity via The Hershey Company and Hersheypark.
• Gettysburg, in Adams County, preserves the site of the pivotal 1863 Civil War battle.
• Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, and Chambersburg anchor a corridor of state government, logistics, and heritage tourism.