Temporary Tomb of the Presidents

Washington, DC

The Congressional Cemetery Public Vault was built in 1835 by Congress as a temporary space to house the remains of public officials until interment (usually back in their home state). For congressmen there was no charge for the vault; others were charged a $5 fee.

The remains of over 4,000 individuals were at times held in the Vault, including the bodies of Presidents William Henry Harrison (1841), John Quincy Adams (1848), and Zachary Taylor (1850). Harrison spent nearly three times as many days in the Public Vault as he did in the White House. Taylor was in the Vault for over three months during the peak of summer, and First Lady Margaret Taylor refused to have him embalmed.

Other famous Vault residents include Vice President John Calhoun (1850), and First Lady Dolley Madison (1849), whose body spent multiple years in the Vault after her troubled son, John Payne Todd, bankrupted the family. An unverified Cemetery legend is that Lewis Powell, one of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, spent several days in the Vault hiding from the police.

The Public Vault fell out of use by the 1930s, but it remains a popular tour stop at Congressional Cemetery. During the cemetery's October Soul Strolls event an actress dressed as Mrs. Madison tells visitors about her impermanent rest there. The now-empty chamber has also been turned, on occasion, into a speakeasy.

[Grave report by Kurt Deion]