How long ago are you talking about? The 1920s? Dems have controlled the inner cities since FDR, and the only machines I am familiar with are the Dem ones in NY and Boston, and Chicago. If the GOP controlled Philly with a machine, it was long ago and short-lived, and not characteristic of Republican governance. Corrupt machine politics, power for the sake of power, not policy, is part of the lifeblood of the Democrat party.
Republicans dominated Philadelphia politics from the civil war to the early 1950’s. The corruption started to occur in the 1910’s and 1920’s. Don’t think of this as a conservative thing. There were and still are “progressive” Republicans.