Every day you walk the streets of your neighborhood, your town, your city.

How many times have you really looked down at the intricacies of the manhole covers beneath the soles of your shoes? Probably never.

For much of his life, Daniel Fireside operated the same way.

Now, by a stroke of toddler-inspired randomness, he’s consumed by a hunt for manhole covers. Fireside considers these cast iron decorations an odd combination of craftsmanship and artistry.

This spring, Fireside was roaming his Teele Square neighborhood in Somerville with his nearly-3-year-old son. The inquisitive toddler began to notice letters and numbers on the utility covers beneath him.

He pointed out a “G” on a gas cap cover. This small, seemingly inconsequential moment struck Fireside.

“I snapped a picture and then it became this odd obsession,” he said.

Since that day, Fireside has taken more than 1,000 photos of various manhole covers, gas caps, water main covers, and street grates stretching around the country. He’s roamed the streets of Arlington, Somerville, Cambridge, even New York and Baltimore.

The more covers he photographs, the more he understands the significance of these oft-unnoticed piece of history.

“These things last longer than the streets, than the buildings, than the people. Everything else crumbles away, the trees will look different, but we have this little historical marker that wasn’t designed as a historical marker,” Fireside said.

This project is totally removed from Fireside’s day job at Equal Exchange, a fair trade coffee company in Massachusetts. He doesn’t have pricy photography equipment, he’s armed with only his iPhone. But, he does have years of family history on his side.

Fireside’s grandfather owned a photography store in Vienna that was destroyed by the Nazis, and his great-grandfather was an early horse race photographer before that. This lineage has inspired Fireside to continue his project and trust his eye.

“That’s always been the family lore,” he said. “I like that I’m finding myself back in the family photography tradition.”

Arlington has quickly become Fireside’s favorite place to come “drainspot,” the official name for this interest. He speculates that Arlington’s manhole covers stretch back more than 100 years.

“I love coming over to Arlington, because there are more old ones over here than any other place I’ve looked. It’s like the mother lode,” he said with a laugh.

Not only do Arlington’s manhole covers come with history, they each contain an element of artistry. Most have a six-pointed star in the center, outfitted with unique fonts or special designs. Much like snowflakes, Fireside has noticed no two manhole covers are the same.

“This is like the quintessential utilitarian object, something for utilities. And yet, they didn't just make them all uniform, he said. “There was some thought that went into the fonts and putting in these little designs. You don’t notice the little details and fully appreciate them until you put them all together.”

Fireside finds himself taking his dog on walks to neighborhoods and communities he tends not to frequent normally, just to search for more manhole covers. Passerby think he works for the towns or cities, and are surprised to hear his actual mission.

One member of his family isn’t exactly on board with the project just yet.

“My 12-year-old daughter thinks I’m nuts, though she’s very impressed with my followers on social media,” Fireside said.

His Twitter account--@IronCovers, if you’re curious--has more than 1,000 followers, and his Instagram account with the same username has over 500 followers.

Fireside never expected the fanfare; he slid into drainspotting fame without even noticing it. He makes sure to post some of his favorite photos during #ManholeCoverMonday, a social media trend among drainspotters.

He doesn’t have an end in mind at this point, he still continues to search for manholes like a squirrel with a nut. As the project continues, Fireside hopes to learn more about the history of these manholes covers and their lineage. Ultimately, he wants people to see the value in these cast-iron afterthoughts.

“Some cities realize they have this treasure in the street and have taken care of it, because once it’s gone it’s lost forever. Hats off to Arlington for preserving these historical markers that are underappreciated and a lot of cities have lost,” he said.