Eldest son of solicitor Henry Charles Lewis Bebb and Jessie Green (daughter of John "Paddy" Green of Evans Hotel, Covent Garden), Charles was born on 10 April 1862 at 11 Silchester Road, Kensington, London, England, where he spent his childhood.
After a stint in South Africa as a railroad construction engineer, Bebb returned to London (17 February 1885) aboard R.M.S.
"Athenian" and instead of going to Australia to join his father, he came to the United States as an Engineer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 15 April 1885 aboard "British Prince") and lived as a boarder in Chicago, listing as a Surveyor.
Bebb came permanently to Seattle in 1893 and went to work for the Denny Clay Company, which, with his assistance, began to produce architectural terra cotta.
His early projects reflected the influence of Louis Sullivan in the use of terra cotta ornament with "Sullivanesque" designs.
Over the next thirteen years their firm was one of the leading architectural practices in Seattle, designing homes, hotels, office buildings and institutional, commercial and industrial structures.