For the origin of the name Cats'Heuvel, we need to go back 75 years, when the first building of this name was built on the Statenplein. 'Cats' refers to the Grand Pensionary Jacob Cats (1577-1660), a man of letters, lawyer, project developer avant-la-lettre and legal adviser to the States of Holland. This Renaissance man owned a country estate in the dunes outside the canals of The Hague called 'Sorghvliet'. Between the Statenkwartier and this country estate was a dune area. Tradition has it that the highest dune served as an observation point for Cats.

That dune was therefore given the name Cats'Heuvel (heuvel meaning 'hill'). This is where the development company Park Zorgvliet built a residential hotel in the late 1920s and called it Cats'Heuvel. Cats'Heuvel was particularly popular among those returning from the Dutch East Indies, such as civil servants, military officers, and widows. Cats'Heuvel was also a favourite royal accommodation of the aristocratic elite. The last residents moved out of the building, which proved unable to withstand the ravages of time, in 1999.