Our History

Forbes Property Management Services was established in 1975 in North Conway, New Hampshire. Two brothers, Dick and Bill Forbes, had relocated to the area after graduating from college with degrees in marketing and management from the University of Maine. They knew they would like to own their own business and something with ties to horticulture seemed like a good fit.

In the early 1970s, there began a growth of vacation homes and condominiums in the Carroll County area, but there were few alternatives for owners who did not have the time to take care of these properties. With that in mind, Dick and Bill launched a new business to help manage and provide property services to new owners and long time residents who no longer wished to take care of their properties themselves.

Going further back, the Forbes family had many ties to horticulture. Alexander Forbes, Dick and Bill's grandfather and a native of Brechin, Scotland, had been sent to America by the Northampton Horticultural Society in 1886, with their good wishes and a purse containing 30 guineas to help him start a new life. Initially, he worked for Peter Henderson & Co. of New York City in the seed business. He eventually bought a controlling interest in J. F. Noll & Company of Newark, NJ, which he later operated as Alexander Forbes Co, his own seed company that sold seed to farmers and market gardeners throughout the East. His son, Alexander Forbes Jr., and Dick and Bill's father, Alexander Forbes III, continued in the family tradition, operating as Alexander Forbes & Co. Inc. into the 1970s. They sold seeds and bulbs, eventually operating as a large retail garden center in several locations in New Jersey.

Growing up, Dick and Bill worked in the family business with a constant exposure to all things having to do with plants. Taking care of people's properties seemed like a good fit to continue with the family business of all things growing.