diff --git a/base/initdefs.jl b/base/initdefs.jl
index ef223bd70a7c9..3b2c9bac4a8ca 100644
--- a/base/initdefs.jl
+++ b/base/initdefs.jl
@@ -54,19 +54,9 @@ isinteractive() = (is_interactive::Bool)
 
 An array of paths as strings or custom loader objects for the `require`
 function and `using` and `import` statements to consider when loading
-code. To create a custom loader type, define the type and then add
-appropriate methods to the `Base.load_hook` function with the following
-signature:
-
-    Base.load_hook(loader::Loader, name::String, found::Any)
-
-The `loader` argument is the current value in `LOAD_PATH`, `name` is the
-name of the module to load, and `found` is the path of any previously
-found code to provide `name`. If no provider has been found earlier in
-`LOAD_PATH` then the value of `found` will be `nothing`. Custom loader
-functionality is experimental and may break or change in Julia 1.0.
+code.
 """
-const LOAD_PATH = Any[]
+const LOAD_PATH = String[]
 const LOAD_CACHE_PATH = String[]
 
 function init_load_path(JULIA_HOME = JULIA_HOME)
diff --git a/base/loading.jl b/base/loading.jl
index 0ecdeb6e58469..16afad4e66ab4 100644
--- a/base/loading.jl
+++ b/base/loading.jl
@@ -80,52 +80,28 @@ else
     end
 end
 
-function load_hook(prefix::String, name::String, ::Void)
-    name_jl = "$name.jl"
-    path = joinpath(prefix, name_jl)
-    isfile_casesensitive(path) && return abspath(path)
-    path = joinpath(prefix, name_jl, "src", name_jl)
-    isfile_casesensitive(path) && return abspath(path)
-    path = joinpath(prefix, name, "src", name_jl)
-    isfile_casesensitive(path) && return abspath(path)
-    return nothing
+macro return_if_file(path)
+    quote
+        path = $(esc(path))
+        isfile_casesensitive(path) && return path
+    end
 end
-load_hook(prefix::String, name::String, path::String) = path
-load_hook(prefix, name::String, ::Any) =
-    throw(ArgumentError("unrecognized custom loader in LOAD_PATH: $prefix"))
 
-_str(x::AbstractString) = String(x)
-_str(x) = x
-
-# `wd` is a working directory to search. defaults to current working directory.
-# if `wd === nothing`, no extra path is searched.
-function find_in_path(name::String, wd::Union{Void,String})
-    isabspath(name) && return name
-    base = name
-    if endswith(name,".jl")
-        base = name[1:prevind(name, end-2)]
-    else
-        name = string(base,".jl")
+function find_package(name::String)
+    endswith(name, ".jl") && (name = chop(name, 0, 3))
+    for dir in [Pkg.dir(); LOAD_PATH]
+        dir = abspath(dir)
+        @return_if_file joinpath(dir, "$name.jl")
+        @return_if_file joinpath(dir, "$name.jl", "src", "$name.jl")
+        @return_if_file joinpath(dir,   name,     "src", "$name.jl")
     end
-    if wd !== nothing
-        isfile_casesensitive(joinpath(wd,name)) && return joinpath(wd,name)
-    end
-    path = nothing
-    path = _str(load_hook(_str(Pkg.dir()), base, path))
-    for dir in LOAD_PATH
-        path = _str(load_hook(_str(dir), base, path))
-    end
-    return path
+    return nothing
 end
-find_in_path(name::AbstractString, wd::AbstractString = pwd()) =
-    find_in_path(String(name), String(wd))
 
-function find_source_file(file::String)
-    (isabspath(file) || isfile(file)) && return file
-    file2 = find_in_path(file)
-    file2 !== nothing && return file2
-    file2 = joinpath(JULIA_HOME, DATAROOTDIR, "julia", "base", file)
-    return isfile(file2) ? file2 : nothing
+function find_source_file(path::String)
+    (isabspath(path) || isfile(path)) && return path
+    base_path = joinpath(JULIA_HOME, DATAROOTDIR, "julia", "base", path)
+    return isfile(base_path) ? base_path : nothing
 end
 
 function find_all_in_cache_path(mod::Symbol)
@@ -416,7 +392,7 @@ function _require(mod::Symbol)
         toplevel_load[] = false
         # perform the search operation to select the module file require intends to load
         name = string(mod)
-        path = find_in_path(name, nothing)
+        path = find_package(name)
         if path === nothing
             throw(ArgumentError("Module $name not found in current path.\nRun `Pkg.add(\"$name\")` to install the $name package."))
         end
@@ -628,7 +604,7 @@ for important notes.
 """
 function compilecache(name::String)
     # decide where to get the source file from
-    path = find_in_path(name, nothing)
+    path = find_package(name)
     path === nothing && throw(ArgumentError("$name not found in path"))
     path = String(path)
     # decide where to put the resulting cache file
@@ -778,7 +754,7 @@ function stale_cachefile(modpath::String, cachefile::String)
                 continue
             end
             name = string(mod)
-            path = find_in_path(name, nothing)
+            path = find_package(name)
             if path === nothing
                 return true # Won't be able to fullfill dependency
             end
diff --git a/base/precompile.jl b/base/precompile.jl
index 86bcc216f32c8..72ebc60a917f1 100644
--- a/base/precompile.jl
+++ b/base/precompile.jl
@@ -1720,7 +1720,8 @@ precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Filesystem.samefile), String, String})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Filesystem.unlink), String})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.finalizer), Base.Distributed.Future, typeof(Base.Distributed.finalize_ref)})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.find_all_in_cache_path), Symbol})
-precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.find_in_path), String, Void})
+precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.find_package), String})
+precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.find_source_file), String})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.getindex), Base.ObjectIdDict, Symbol})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.getindex), Type{Tuple{String, Float64}}, Tuple{String, Float64}})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.Grisu._show), Base.IOContext{Base.GenericIOBuffer{Array{UInt8, 1}}}, Float64, Int64, Int64, Bool, Bool})
@@ -1745,8 +1746,6 @@ precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.isequal), String, Float64})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.isequal), Tuple{String, Float64}, Tuple{String, Float64}})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base._jl_spawn), String, Array{String, 1}, Ptr{Void}, Base.Process, Base.PipeEndpoint, Base.TTY, Base.Filesystem.File})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.julia_cmd)})
-precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.load_hook), String, String, String})
-precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.load_hook), String, String, Void})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.next), Base.Generator{Array{Any, 1}, typeof(Base.FastMath.make_fastmath)}, Int64})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.open), Base.CmdRedirect, String, Base.TTY})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.open), String, String})
@@ -1836,8 +1835,6 @@ precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.stale_cachefile), String, String})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.start), Tuple{Symbol, UInt64}})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.start), Tuple{Void, Void}})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.:(>)), String, String})
-precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base._str), String})
-precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base._str), Void})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.sync_add), Base.Distributed.Future})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.trunc), Float64, Int64, Int64})
 precompile(Tuple{typeof(Base.union!), Base.Set{Tuple{String, Float64}}, Tuple{Tuple{String, Float64}}})
diff --git a/test/loading.jl b/test/loading.jl
index f85be6cac24fd..196ef84d6bbe6 100644
--- a/test/loading.jl
+++ b/test/loading.jl
@@ -78,30 +78,3 @@ mktempdir() do dir
         end
     end
 end
-
-SAVED_LOAD_PATH = copy(LOAD_PATH)
-empty!(LOAD_PATH)
-dir = abspath(@__DIR__)
-push!(LOAD_PATH, dir)
-
-@test Base.find_in_path("test_sourcepath") == joinpath(dir, "test_sourcepath.jl")
-@test Base.find_in_path(GenericString("test_sourcepath")) == joinpath(dir, "test_sourcepath.jl")
-LOAD_PATH[end] = GenericString(LOAD_PATH[end])
-@test Base.find_in_path("test_sourcepath") == joinpath(dir, "test_sourcepath.jl")
-
-struct CustomLoader
-    path::String
-end
-push!(LOAD_PATH, CustomLoader("abc"))
-let name = randstring(20)
-    @test_throws ArgumentError Base.find_in_path(name, nothing)
-    Base.load_hook(prefix::CustomLoader, name::String, found) = joinpath(prefix.path, name)
-    @test Base.find_in_path(name, nothing) == joinpath("abc", name)
-end
-@test Base.find_in_path("test_sourcepath", nothing) == joinpath("abc", "test_sourcepath")
-Base.load_hook(prefix::CustomLoader, name::String, found::String) = found
-@test Base.find_in_path("test_sourcepath", nothing) == joinpath(dir, "test_sourcepath.jl")
-
-empty!(LOAD_PATH)
-append!(LOAD_PATH, SAVED_LOAD_PATH)
-@test LOAD_PATH == SAVED_LOAD_PATH