From teak forest to commercial area

Like other parts of South Jakarta, Kebayoran Baru, which covers an area of around 730 hectares, used to be a teak forest.

The name Kebayoran comes from the Indonesian word for a kind of teak tree, bayur (Pterospermum javanicum).

During the Dutch colonial era, the forest was cleared for orchards.

In 1948, downtown Kota, West Jakarta, was becoming more and more crowded. Thus, the city administration planned to build 80,000 houses along with public facilities, including roads, in the orchard area, which is now part of Kebayoran Ilir.

A town planner, only known as Soesilo, was assigned to make a blueprint of the area, including the layout of office buildings, markets, shopping centers, industrial estates, green belts, schools, cemeteries, residential complexes, three churches, four movie theaters and four mosques.

Land acquisition was completed in 1948. The administration established a foundation, the Centrale Stichting Wederopbouw (CSW) to develop the area, and also a governmental administration office, the Kebayoran Commissie.

The construction of the new city of Kotabaru Kebayoran was finished in 1954. -- JP

Source: Betawi dan Modernisasi Jakarta by Ridwan Saidi