Tikkakoski developed on lands of the village of
Tikka-Mannila and, to a lesser extent, Korttajärvi (modern
Puuppola and
Kuikka). The entirety of Tikka-Mannila was property of the
Vehniä manor in Laukaa until the early 19th century, when of its land was used to form the Tikkamannila manor. This included the site of modern Tikkakoski, which was still mostly uninhabited in the latter half of the century, with the exception of one tenant farm () and a miller's house. The development of Tikkakoski into an industrial community began in 1890, when engineer Martin Stenij bought the area around the rapids, where a watermill and sawmill were already located. Stenij established a wool processing plant, a forging plant and a foundry by the rapids. Around the same time, a tar factory was established further southeast in the Liinalampi area, around which worker homes were built. Stenij sold the factories of Tikkakoski to businessmen from the city of Jyväskylä in 1910, after which the watermill and sawmill were decommissioned. In 1912, the limited company (
osakeyhtiö)
Tikkakosken Rauta- ja Puuteollisuus was established and began producing motors and machine parts at the factories. Soon after Finland became independent from Russia in 1917, firearms became the company's main product. The company, which was renamed
Oy Tikkakoski Ab in 1929, was one of Finland's earliest arms producers. The Liinalampi tar factory was closed in the 1920s. Tikkakoski grew rapidly during the 1930s and 1940s as Oy Tikkakoski Ab expanded. In 1925, the factory employed 26 people, which had grown to 300 by 1937. In 1938, a
Finnish Air Force unit was relocated to Tikkakoski and the construction of an airfield that later developed into the
Jyväskylä Airport began. By 1944, the amount of employees had increased to around 1,000, though the production of firearms ended after the
Continuation War. The factory was under Soviet ownership from 1944 to 1957, during which sewing machines were its main product. After the Soviet Union stopped importing sewing machines in 1964, the factory started producing studs for winter tires while also resuming firearm production at the end of the decade. Between the 1930s and 1950s, the population of Tikkakoski had grown tenfold and the settlement was considered to be an urban area instead of a village. A zoning plan for Tikkakoski was made by the municipality (Jyväskylän maalaiskunta) in 1950. Buildings built according to the plan include a church built in 1957 and municipal healthcare buildings between 1961–1964. A new zoning plan was made in 1973, which allowed Tikkakoski to be expanded towards Liinalampi, filling the gap that had existed between the two. A new commercial center was also built along the street Kirkkokatu, replacing an earlier commercial area in Liinalampi. Apartment buildings were also built during the 1970s. A plan to abolish Jyväskylän maalaiskunta was made in 1967. According to the plan, most of the municipality's territory would have been transferred to the city with the exception of Tikkakoski, which was to become its own municipality including the village of Vehniä as well as the entire municipality of Uurainen. The plan was not considered after 1970. Most people living in Tikkakoski were employed by either the factory or the Luonetjärvi garrison until the
early 1990s depression in Finland. The population of the urban area began to decline during this time. New urban plans for Tikkakoski were made around this time, and the Tunnelinmäki area consisting of detached houses was built during the 2000s as the first residential area of Tikkakoski not established for factory workers. Tikkakoski became part of the city of Jyväskylä in 2009, when the municipalities of Jyväskylän maalaiskunta and
Korpilahti were consolidated with it. As one of modern Jyväskylä's areal centers, the population of Tikkakoski has begun to grow again in the 2010s. == Services ==