901 Area Code – Memphis, Tennessee: Location, Time Zone & History

Memphis has carried area code 901 since 1947, when it was one of the original 86 numbering plan areas assigned nationwide and covered the whole state of Tennessee. A 1954 flash cut split the state along the Tennessee River: 901 kept West Tennessee while the eastern two-thirds became 615. The territory narrowed again on February 12, 2001, when area code 731 split off to cover Jackson, Dyersburg and the rest of West Tennessee outside the Memphis metro, leaving 901 with its present four-county footprint.

That footprint -- Shelby, Fayette, Hardeman and Tipton counties -- includes Memphis itself along with Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, Millington, Cordova and Arlington, all on Central Time. Notably, 901 has never needed an overlay of its own, unusual for a metro of its size; industry projections put relief need around 2035.

Memphis's economy is built around logistics, as headquarters and primary air hub for FedEx, earning the city the nickname "America's Distribution Center," alongside healthcare and biomedical research led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded there in 1962. Culturally, Beale Street, Sun Studio and the Stax Museum anchor Memphis's identity as a birthplace of the blues and rock and roll, with Elvis Presley's Graceland drawing heritage tourism from around the world.