His father, James Ogilvy, established a stationery store in Ottawa, and Charles followed in the retail business by opening his own dry goods shop at 92 Rideau Street in 1887.

The success of Ottawa's local department stores, such as Ogilvy's, Freimans, Murphy-Gamble and Caplan's discouraged the expansion of national chains (including Eaton's, Simpson's, Simpsons-Sears and The Bay) into the National Capital Region until the 1950s (Simpsons-Sears opened its Carlingwood outlet in 1955).

A fire occurred on December 29, 1969 at the downtown store which caused water damage to the main section, and the collapse of a warehouse/addition next door affected the store for a 2-month closure while they cleaned up the interior of "126 Rideau", which suffered major smoke and water damage, and rebuilt the warehouse next door that was totaled by fire.

Followed by the expansion of national department store chains into Ottawa and the harsh economic climate of the 1980s, proved disastrous for Ogilvy's.

In 1996, the Hudson's Bay Company acquired the remaining assets of Robinson-Ogilvy Ltd, although by that time the firm had been absent from Ottawa for four years.

In March 2013, the Charles Ogilvy Ltd Facebook Page was created by a fan to document/preserve the past, present, and future of the building and company.