About 4,600 individuals were temporarily interred in the vault, including three U.S. presidents, First Lady Dolley Madison, and sixteen congressmen who died while serving in office.

[8] Temporary interments have included three U.S. presidents: John Quincy Adams (February 26 – March 6, 1848), William Henry Harrison (April 7 – June 26, 1841), and Zachary Taylor (July 13 – October 26, 1850).

[11][12][13] Senator John C. Calhoun was interred in the Public Vault following a formal funeral and grand procession from the Capitol on April 2, 1850.

For example, following Henry Clay's death in 1852, his remains were also encased in a Fisk metallic coffin and transported to his home state by railroad without an interval at the Public Vault.

[21] Legend says that Lewis Powell spent a night in the vault while avoiding pursuit for his role in the assassination of President Lincoln.

[22] During the twentieth century, it became unclear whether the U.S. Government or Christ Church owned the Public Vault and several dozen burial lots.

In 1953, a Congressional report suggested that the government clear the record by selling the otherwise unnamed "receiving vault" and the burial lots to the church for $100.