Not Your Ordinary Friday Night

A scavenger hunt for Houston history: Landmark concert tour to push preservationand clues

Leah White & The Magic Mirrors
Leah White & The Magic Mirrors/Facebook
Scavenger hunt flyer
14 Pews entrance
Photo via 14 Pews/Facebook

Singer-songwriter Leah White and The Magic Mirrors are closing out Houston’s 175th birthday celebration with a bang.

The Parents Choice award-winning artist and her band kickoff the Landmark Tour 2012 Scavenger Hunt at 14 Pews Friday night. The tour is a series of concert stops at landmarks White sings about on her latest album Our Roots are Strong.

“The album was written to inspire the city's youth about Houston’s history and the need for preservation.”

White says she was asked to become part of the Houston's 175th birthday planning committee and charged with writing original songs about some of Houston’s well-known and lesser known landmarks.

“The album was written to inspire the city's youth about Houston’s history and the need for preservation,” White tells CultureMap.

A music video was also produced to promote the Houston non-profits featured on the album. Mayor Annise Parker, Dominique Sachse and Deborah Duncan all make cameos in the video.

The historical tour stops include The Orange Show, NASA, the Buffalo Bayou and Allen’s Landing, the Astrodome and many more.

At the beginning of the tour, attendees will receive mock passports. They will then go to each landmark/concert and receive a QR code sticker.

The scavenger hunt will have participants scan their QR code stickers with their smartphone to get secret historical facts and details about each landmark. White says once a person collects and decodes the stickers, they will get a prize at each show, depending on the amount of stickers/shows they have attended.

Prizes will include passes to the Houston Zoo, movie gift cards and ice cream shop gift cards.

“The magic mirrors and I can't wait to tour Houston and promote our city,” White says. “We are thrilled to be a part of this celebration.”

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SAFE SPACE

2 Houston neighbors ranked among the top 10 safest cities in Texas

Steve Francis home estate Memorial Villages

Photo by Kevin Ward

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Judging by the headlines, locals might think they're going to be accosted every time they leave home, but a new report says the Houston area is home to two of the safest cities in Texas. Home security review site SafeWise has ranked the communities of the Memorial Villages (No. 3) and Fulshear (No. 8) on its recent list of towns unburdened by crime worries.

For its 2026 report, SafeWise factored in FBI-reported property and violent crime data for 343 cities, then adjusted it for population in order to fairly compare metros to rural and suburban towns. Although the rankings do provide a snapshot, the site says “a number of factors, including local agency reporting practices, community resources, prevention efforts, and lived experience all influence how safe a place is (or is perceived to be).”

The rankings were released with SafeWise’s State of Safety survey, which found that perception didn’t always gel with reality. Although the statewide property crime rate of 23.4 incidents per 1,000 people is slightly higher than the national rate, Texas’ violent crime rate of 4.44 incidents per 1,000 people is consistent with the national average.

Still, Texans feel less safe than the average American. Only 49 percent of the survey’s respondents say they feel safe in the state compared to the national norm of 52 percent. 55 percent said they worry about their safety on a daily basis, a year-over-year increase from 52 percent. The data contrasts with first-hand reporting. For the second year in a row, Lone Star State participants said they have had few personal experiences with property crime and package theft.

Elsewhere in Texas, Fair Oaks Ranch was the only San Antonio area city to make it to the list, which favored towns of 30,000 residents or fewer. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan statistical area had the most ranked cities. The full top 10 includes:

No. 1 — Trophy Club (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 2 — Parker (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 3 — Memorial Villages (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 4 — Melissa (Dallas-Fort Worth)
No. 5 — Fair Oaks Ranch (San Antonio-New Braunfels)
No. 6 — Whitehouse (Tyler)
No. 7 — Murphy (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 8 — Fulshear (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 9 — Colleyville (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 10 — Lumberton (Beaumont-Port Arthur)

safety suburbs crime rankings