Massachusetts
(978) Area Code 978 — Lowell, Massachusetts
978 Area Code – Lowell, Massachusetts: Location, Time Zone & History
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Map of Area Code 978
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History & Cultural Notes
North-central and northeastern Massachusetts -- Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill, Peabody, Fitchburg -- have used area code 978 since September 1, 1997, when it split off from area code 508. Permissive dialing on the old numbers ended the following February, completing the transition.
Growth proved fast enough that within a few years 978 needed relief of its own. Rather than another geographic split, regulators added area code 351 as an all-services overlay on the same territory, effective May 2, 2001, making it one of Massachusetts's earliest overlay codes and bringing mandatory ten-digit dialing to the region.
Lowell, the largest city in the numbering plan area, was a major center of the American Industrial Revolution and is preserved today as Lowell National Historical Park. The broader 978/351 territory sustains a mix of higher education, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and retail employment, reflecting a region that grew from nineteenth-century mill towns into a diversified corner of the Boston metro's economic orbit.