The pungent aroma of Cuban cigars, draft beer and sweating prizefighters long ago filled part of the handsome, red brick building at 40 Harlow St., now occupied by the University of Maine Museum of Art. While couples waltzed under a crystal ball that hung from the ceiling of the upstairs Chateau Ballroom, downstairs, on the floor that now houses the art gallery, sports enthusiasts from another era played in a blue-collar fixture called the Bowlodrome.

The three-story Charles W. Morse building, named for the livery stable owner who hired a leading architect, Victor Hodgins, to design his block in 1914, was purchased a decade ago by developer Bob Duerr. He began renovating the treasure in 1991. It had been left vacant and was falling into disrepair after Sears-Roebuck Co., which moved in during the 1930s forcing the Chateau and the Bowlodrome out in the ’40s, relocated to the Bangor Mall in 1978.

Duerr demolished an adjoining polished-granite block fronting onto Harlow Street, revealing the Chateau’s original eight top ballroom windows long hidden from view. He renamed the landmark Norumbega Hall after an earlier public landmark lost in the Great Fire of 1911. The building is now owned by the Couri Foundation.

The Bowlodrome’s address in the Morse building, completed four years after the 1911 disaster leveled half of downtown, was originally listed as Post Office Mall, the pedestrian parkway stretching between Central and State streets where the old city post office building sat until being claimed by the inferno.

People now have returned to the Chateau Ballroom, with memories of dancing upstairs and roller skating downstairs.

A Bangor Daily News advertisement, dated April 4, 1917, announced the sporting palace’s grand opening. The “leading amusement place in town” boasted nine bowling alleys, some reserved for women and parties, and a billiard parlor filled with mahogany furniture. Every fall, an indoor skating rink was opened.

“This rink will be, as in the past, conducted in a clean manner and only those who obey the rules will be catered to,” reported the newspaper on the rink’s 1921 debut.

William and Forrest Fleming managed the Bowlodrome and the Sportsman’s Athletic Club for about 25 years, booking big-name fighters alongside no-name Joe Palookas. Some sparred upstairs in the spacious ballroom, but the bloodiest battles raged in the Bowlodrome.

At least one match, between University of Maine student Edward Francis Prout of Hampden, whose ring name was “Knockout Jim Ryan,” and George Langley of Waterville, ended tragically in 1921 when Prout was hurled through the ring and to his death. A heartbroken Bill Fleming, renowned for running clean fights, swore he would never promote another match unless it was a benefit bout for Prout.

The Flemings occasionally rented out the Bowlodrome to political rallies. In 1920, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, was slated to speak, with women encouraged to attend since, for the first time, they had been granted the right to vote.

Roosevelt was replaced by fellow Democrat Bourke Cockran, who spoke at the Bowlodrome after FDR abandoned the Maine campaign trail to attend an uncle’s funeral. He lost the 1920 election, later winning four presidential terms, but never appeared publicly in Bangor. As long as Roosevelt was in office, the Chateau, along with dance halls throughout the nation, hosted a January birthday ball in the president’s honor.

Many years later, during his 2000 presidential campaign, Ralph Nader brought national politics back to the building, speaking in the Chateau Ballroom at the Maine Green Independent Party’s first state convention. More than 450 attended.

Norumbega Hall, now filled again with Chateau Ballroom activities, the Hammond Street Senior Center Fitness Facility on the middle floor, and the University of Maine Museum of Art beneath that facility, is bursting with activity – not, this time around, with rattling bowling pins and sweet orchestral music, but with the clear vision of people who have rejuvenated a long-forgotten urban landmark.