Raised in Maine to be a sea captain, Loring instead became a civic leader in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he was a wealthy flour miller and in Riverside, California where he helped to build the first city hall.

The city built what has been called, "the best-located, best-financed, best-designed, and best-maintained public open space in America.

But Loring disliked the ocean and the isolation and moved to Chicago in 1856 where he worked as a wheat speculator for B. P. Hutchinson and became a successful grain trader.

[1] Loring never enjoyed perfect health,[1] and when he fell ill in Chicago and moved on doctor's advice to Minneapolis, his friend Loren Fletcher helped him become manager of the supply store for Dorilus Morrison's lumber business.

[1][8] Florence Loring participated in civic affairs and was a quilter whose Crazy Quilt is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

[11] Loring understood the city's geography—its waterfalls, lakes and river banks—and was able to use these unique aspects of his new home to slowly build his fortune.

[1][16] Through his business associations, Loring contributed to major advances in the infrastructure of Minneapolis, to supply electricity, as a director of a railroad, and as chief executive of the North American Telegraph Company.

He was reelected each term and served until 1890 when he insisted on resigning because a property in which he held financial interest was under park board consideration.

[26][27] Horace Cleveland made his "crowning achievement" in Minneapolis at the end of his career, in part thanks to "kindred spirits.

"[28] William Watts Folwell who was the founding president of the University of Minnesota, and Berry and Loring, both from Maine, were all united in their love for nature.

The system Cleveland created is characterized by the use of indigenous plants in their natural environment and by the linking of open spaces and landmarks across distance with boulevards and parkways.

[30] Named by Folwell, the 52-mile (83 km) Grand Rounds circles from Northeast, Minneapolis to Theodore Wirth Park, to the Chain of Lakes and follows the Mississippi River upstream past Minnehaha Falls to downtown.

Wirth met with Minneapolis neighborhoods to extend Cleveland's work from landmark geographical features to every street.

[32][35] In 1889 in his winter home in Riverside, California, Loring constructed an office block with a 1,000-seat theater on the first floor that hosted performers such as W.C. Fields and Sarah Bernhardt.

The Camp Fire Girls planted a spruce tree in his memory on the south shore of Lake Harriet.

The City of Riverside declared April 17, 1923 Loring Day and dedicated a plaque to him, inscribed with this memorial:[36] In honor of Charles M. Loring Treelover And Civic Enthusiast Let dead names be eternalized by dead stones Let living names by living shafts be known: Plant thou a tree whose griefless leaves shall sing Thy deed and thee, each fresh unfolding spring