Area code 859
Area code 859 serves the east-central portion of the state of Kentucky. It was created in a split from area code 606 in 1999.
Its service area encompasses the following Kentucky counties (the boundary closely, but not exactly, tracks county lines):
- Bourbon County
- Boyle County
- Campbell County
- Clark County
- Fayette County (coterminous with the city of Lexington)
- Gallatin County
- Garrard County
- Grant County
- Harrison County
- Jessamine County
- Kenton County
- Madison County
- Mercer County
- Montgomery County
- Nicholas County
- Pendleton County
- Washington County
- Woodford County
Among the cities in the 859 area code, besides Lexington, are Nicholasville, Richmond, Danville, Covington, Versailles, Florence, Mount Sterling, Winchester and other parts of north central Kentucky, as well as most of the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
Conventional wisdom would have suggested that Lexington would have retained 606 in the 1999 split, as it was the largest city in the old 606 territory. However, the Kentucky Public Service Commission asked for 859 to be assigned to Lexington because Lexington is the home of the University of Kentucky, and the numbers 859 spell out "UKY" on a standard keypad. Also, it was decided the rest of the area would keep 606 to spare a notoriously impoverished area the added expense and burden of changing an area code.
See also
- "Area Code Maps". NANPA.
| North: 513, 937 | ||
| West: 502, 812 | area code 859 | East: 606 |
| South: 270 | ||
| Indiana area codes: 219, 260, 317/463, 574, 765, 812/930 | ||
| Ohio area codes: 216, 330/234, 419/567, 440/436, 513/283, 614/380, 740/220, 937/326 | ||
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