At the mouth of the Pascagoula River, the clanging of metal and the low hum of machinery still hang over a shipyard that has long shaped the identity of a Mississippi Coast city. But that’s beginning to change as an eclectic mix of new restaurants, boutiques and, most recently, a rooftop bar, begin to fill the streets lined with palm trees and acorn-style lights.

The Hancock Bar, housed in a former Hancock Whitney Bank that has been converted into a mixed-use development, is among the businesses helping drive a shift in downtown Pascagoula. Opened in May by business partners Ramsey Taylor and Parker Pugh, the bar has quickly become a hangout for the city’s newer generation of residents.

Pascagoula is best known as the home of Ingalls Shipbuilding, one of Mississippi’s largest employers.

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