Boom times may return to Route 40 north of Baltimore. But the crumbling relics ? the former Magnolia diner that?s now the office for a junkyard, the Keyser Motel so often cordoned off by yellow crime-scene tape, the old Flying Clipper restaurant that became a liquor store ? may be among the casualties of progress.

As developers eye the run-down car lots, rent-by-the-hour motels and porno palaces along Route 40 as ripe for redevelopment opportunities, photographer Michael Lijewski rushes to document the area?s hidden history before it disappears.