774 Area Code – Worcester, Massachusetts: Location, Time Zone & History

New Bedford was once the world's leading whaling port, and it remains one of the top-grossing commercial fishing ports in the country -- a legacy that now lives inside area code 774. Unlike most Massachusetts codes, 774 was never carved out by a split; it entered service May 2, 2001 as an all-services overlay laid directly on top of 508, letting central and southeastern Massachusetts add capacity without renumbering a single household.

508 itself has an older story. It split from Boston's 617 in 1988, then gave up its northern territory to the new 978 in 1997, leaving the central and southeastern footprint that 774 later overlaid -- the 294th area code activated in North America, one of 26 introduced that year. Ten-digit dialing became mandatory across the shared territory from the overlay's first day.

The combined 508/774 region reaches from Worcester and Framingham through Brockton, Fall River, Taunton, and Plymouth out to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. Plymouth itself marks the 1620 Plymouth Colony landing and holds Plymouth Rock, while the Cape and islands draw New England's tourism economy alongside the area's manufacturing, healthcare, and higher-education base.