Cypress

History

Cypress originally was nicknamed "Waterville" due to the preponderance of artesian wells in the area, but was incorporated under the name Dairy City in 1956 by local dairy farmers as a means of staving off developers and to preserve their dairies, much like the then-neighboring cities of Dairy Valley in Cerritos and Dairyland in La Palma. After World War II, however, the land became too valuable for farming or ranching, and the dairies gradually sold out to housing developers during the 1960s, so that by the 1970s no dairies remained. Many of the dairymen moved their operations to Chino, where development is once again pushing them out of the area. In 1957, local residents voted to change the name of "Dairy City" to "Cypress". The name was taken from Cypress Elementary School (originally built in 1895) which took its name from the cypress trees planted to protect the schoolhouse from the seasonal Santa Ana winds. Cypress Elementary School also provided the name for new Pacific Electric Railway station on Walker Street at Lincoln Avenue when the Santa Ana Line was completed in 1906, as "Waterville" already had been used elsewhere in the system. In 1981, the City of Cypress inaugurated an annual birthday celebration for the city. The event, the Cypress Community Festival, currently may be the largest single-day event of its kind in Orange County, California. The Cypress Community Festival is held annually on the 4th Saturday in July at Oak Knoll Park, located adjacent to the Cypress Community Center at 5700 Orange Avenue, between Valley View Street and Walker Avenue.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and 0.14% is water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  64,037
• Black Phoebe

  Sayornis nigricans (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  60,953
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  56,216
• Allen's Hummingbird

  Selasphorus sasin (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  49,515
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  47,785
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  46,329
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

  Setophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  39,307
• Lesser Goldfinch

  Spinus psaltria (Say, 1822) · Aves
  38,888

Largest nearby schools

• Fountain Valley High
  High · Fountain Valley · 3,180 students · 26.3:1 ratio
• Los Alamitos High
  High · Los Alamitos · 3,055 students · 25.5:1 ratio
• Cypress High
  High · Cypress · 2,820 students · 24.5:1 ratio
• Anaheim High
  High · Anaheim · 2,750 students · 21:1 ratio
• Westminster High
  High · Westminster · 2,637 students · 24.2:1 ratio
• Katella High
  High · Anaheim · 2,587 students · 23.5:1 ratio
• Troy High
  High · Fullerton · 2,584 students · 23.7:1 ratio
• Sunny Hills High
  High · Fullerton · 2,429 students · 27:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.77 — 2026-10-15
  3 km NNW of San Jacinto, CA
• M 3.16 — 2026-10-09
  2 km SW of Signal Hill, CA
• M 2.7 — 2026-10-08
  2 km WNW of Fontana, CA
• M 2.51 — 2026-10-05
  31 km SW of Dana Point, CA
• M 2.81 — 2026-10-05
  32 km SW of Dana Point, CA
• M 3.48 — 2026-10-05
  31 km SW of Dana Point, CA