The first refrigerator was a commercial fridge devised in the late 1800s by a Hungarian inventor named Istvan Rock from electric compressors and ammonia. It was another 40 years before the home fridge was born. Invented by Fred Wolf of Indiana in 1913, it was a cooling unit placed on top of an ice box that kept the items inside cold. But the first popular fridge was made in 1927 by GE. It was similar to the Wolf version but more decorative.