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Anne Davis Walker knows what she'll miss most.

The first house, a brick building on the corner of Fifth Street and Summer Avenue Northwest, next to her husband's plumbing business.

That house and 20 other abandoned buildings the Walkers built, covering a city block, were torn down by the city on Aug. 9.

"I cannot believe that this has come to an end," Walker said as demolition crews began tearing apart the buildings. "It hurts to see it being torn down."

Walker and the city agreed to the demolition after months of negotiation, citing the good of the Wells Park neighborhood.

The city is fronting the $182,000 tab for clearing the property. It will place a lien on the lots, which Walker said she will pay.

Pete Dinelli, deputy city attorney, said the property has been a magnet for drugs and crime. Walker, 86, said she has had a hard time maintaining the property since her husband, Remmel Walker, died 19 years ago.

Most of the buildings were rental houses, but there were also sheds and business buildings.

Walker and her husband bought the first property in 1941. Her husband owned a plumbing business, and she eventually opened an electrolysis shop on the property.

The signs were still on the buildings before they were torn down.

"With our businesses next to each other, we were always with each other," she said. "There are a lot of good memories here."

But soon, that's all there will be. All the buildings were demolished on Aug. 10, and the rubble will be cleared within 10 days.

Neighbors say they're glad to see the buildings demolished.

"I've been here 19 years, and for 11 years, it's been nothing but a nuisance," said Becky Anaya, Walker's friend and a neighbor to the property. "There's been prostitution, drugs, homeless, stabbings, everything you can imagine."

Walker said she has received some offers on the property, but has not decided what to do with it yet. She said she does not know how much the property is worth.

If she sells it, she wants to sell it as one piece.

"I want to sell it to someone who will do something with it to drive up the property values around here," she said. "The people around here deserve a break."

Anaya said she hopes to see an expansion of the adjacent Wells Park Community Center but would be happy with anything other than vacant homes.

"You don't realize how much living across from something like this influences your life," she said. "It really hurts your morale."

The property is a good prospect for residential or mixed-use infill, said Katherine Martinez, director of government affairs for the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico.

"It's a very valuable piece of property," she said. "This opens the door for a really nice project. I think it's too early to say what will happen, but it will probably be good for the community."

The Safe City Strike Force, which coordinated the demolition, has also destroyed six other decrepit houses and a dilapidated shopping center this year, Dinelli said.

For those, the strike force had to obtain a condemnation order. The force would have had to do the same for each of the 21 buildings on Walker's property if she had not agreed to the demolition, Dinelli said.