The first true rotary phone appeared in 1892 and was installed in La Porte, Indiana.

This rotary dial phone was built around Almon Brown Strowger's 1891 patent design. These early rotary phones used lugs on the finger plate rather than the more recognizable holes that came later.

By 1919 companies like the American Bell Company began to roll out national service for rotary dial telephones. Their golden age was about to begin