Meester Cornelis was a part of Batavia that was once prime real estate. It was named after the Calvinist Malay-speaking preacher Cornelis van Senen. He was granted land in the area that bore his name and soon it was settled by people of various ethnicities including Europeans, Indonesians, Arabs, and Chinese.

Today this part of Batavia has been renamed Jatinegara but quite a few buildings survive from colonial times.