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One day in 1887, a basket containing pieces of varnished paper was delivered to the Coast and Geodetic Survey . These scraps were all that remained of L'Enfant's original manuscript plan for the City of Washington, executed in 1791.

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The plan had been in the custody of the War Department's Office of Public Buildings and Grounds for many years. It had been mounted on cloth for preservation and coated with varnish. By 1887, it had fallen apart and was entrusted to the Coast Survey for restoration and reproduction.

The original drawing was done in blue, green, yellow, and two shades of red. The water areas tinted blue on L'Enfant's map had faded, but their extent remained apparent.

An exact tracing of the manuscript as it existed when it was received was carefully prepared by Coast Survey cartographers.

Features not distinguishable on the original were omitted from the restored manuscript. This accounts for breaks in some of the lines and incomplete features on the present-day litho-printed reproductions. .

Fifteen areas, originally shown in yellow, were proposed sites for memorials which States might choose to build in memory of individuals "whose achievements rendered them worthy of being invited to the attention of the youth in succeeding generations." The yellow tint had faded from the original plan, but the areas were restored according to the description contained in the marginal notes.

In the restoration of the manuscript, three well-defined figures were interpreted as representing areas set aside for churches. The locations were colored light red to conform with the manuscript notation.

Faded green-tinted areas identified "the well-improved fields" referred to in the marginal notes as green plots. These were set aside for parks and included the areas now known as the Mall, adjacent areas in southwest Washington, and the White House grounds. A dark red tint was believed to identify buildings existing in 1791 on either side of the Mall.

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