The Criterion was opened at the end of 1877. The North Otago Times described it as ‘the most ornamental of the recent additions to our street architecture.’ Designed by Oamaru architectural partnership Forrester and Lemon and built of Oamaru stone from the Cave Valley quarries, it was built in an elaborate Italianate style.
Gillespie sold the hotel to Peter Alexander. Alexander sold to William Manning around 1888. John Marshall Brown, who had run the nearby Star and Garter Hotel, owned the hotel. There was a steady change of owners throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
After Oamaru voted for Prohibition in 1906, the Criterion survived as a Temperance Hotel. By the 1930s, it was in a poor state of repair. In the 1940s, Gillies Foundry and Engineering Company bought the building and used it as a store for the material from their Tyne Street foundry until the mid-1990s.
In later years the Whitestone Civic Trust took over the building. The Trust has since restored the Hotel, returning the parapet detailing to its original form. The hotel has been refurbished and in 2015, it once again offers accommodation for travellers and hospitality to travellers and locals alike.