THE ROVING EYE.

THE landmark statue of a 10-foot-tall horse and its human companion alongside and old bank building at Manchester Avenue and South Sepulveda Boulevard has a new lease on life.

The International House of Pancakes franchise that opened there in March has now decided to preserve the outside of the landmark building, including the unusual statute that first went up in the 1960s.

"We felt that here in Westchester, in this setting, it was just the right thing to do." said Evey Loyo, director of operations for IHOP.

While IHOP restaurants are pervasive (there are 93 of them in the L.A. region), none has a more distinctive customer-greeting icon than the Westchester facility.

"A lot of people ask questions," said Loyo. "What about the statue? Why is it there?"

To get some answers, franchise owner Anthony Kouba hired a researcher to fill in the gaps. The effort included collecting a series of old photographs that now hang in the restaurant.

The research found that the statue was created by Millard Sheets, an architect, painter, sculptor and muralist who once served as director of the Los Angeles County Art Institute. His works hang in museums throughout the country, as well as in the White House.

Sheets was commissioned at the time to create artwork for the interior and exterior of Home Savings of America branches, one of which was housed in what is now Kouba's IHOP. For reasons that remain murky, he thought a horse would be just the right touch for the Westchester building.

The building has housed a number of different tenants over the past three decades.