It opened as a hotel in 1928, but the building was completed earlier than that. From the hotel group's website:
1927 - The Peninsula taken over by military authorities, accommodating The Second Battalion, The Coldstream Guards and a battalion of The Devonshire Regiment; soldiers vacated the hotel a year later.
1928 - The Peninsula officially opened to the public by Sir Wilfred Thomas Southorn CMG, Governor of Hong Kong. <Read more ...>
[Update March 2019: I'd previously named this Place "Star House (1st generation)", but I can't find any evidence it was called Star House when it was in use.]
I am uncertain which YMCA was Booth talking about in this chapter, but other than the one in Tsimshatsui, there was this old YMCA house at this location. It was an old manor house with fences, arches and a dome if I'm not mistaken. But it was gone after the rebuilt about two decades ago.
The tag shows the approximate location possible for the Booths to turn right into Kai Chiu Road in their Ford. I'm pretty sure the layout of the building close to the Jardine's Bazzar/Yee Wo street was different then as that triangular building is blocking the way nowadays and does not allow traffic from turning right/South on Yee Wo Street anywhere.
The was the original Hotel back then. Low rise, high ceiling, with tiled roof. Now it had become a shopping centre with restaurants, a Wellcome supermarket and various small shops.
I am not sure about the 1950's, but from my childhood in the 1960's, the construction site shown in the photo below was where the Dragon Seen Company located. That's the corner of Li Yuen Street East and Queen's Road Central. The construction site caused a mud slide last year, made a few of those pai dong in ruin. I remember somebody fell into the hole....... but was soon rescued.
