We recently had a water softener installed in our ca. 1902 house. Hard water can make dyeing and washing out more difficult, especially when you must clean print paste ( a sodium alginate product used to thicken dyes) from a silk screen. It will actually clog the screen with a film of hardened goo.
This idle thought prompted me to share a peripheral dye-geek bit of info. Sausage casings are made from sodium alginate too! The alginate is co-extruded around the meat or vegetable paste, then sprayed with what is basically hard, salty water! Read more here. I first learned about this on the TV Show “Inside the Factory.”
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Your house may be even older than mine! Mt best guess is early 1920s. I know hard water from Fairbanks, AK. The permafrost prevents groundwater from filtering through what is normally loose soil, and the water leaves rust stains on EVERYTHING! ZUD is the word.